---
title: For anything approaching frivolity he has a supreme contempt. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: For anything approaching frivolity he has a supreme contempt. Who acts: Kaffir. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 53

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For anything approaching frivolity he has a supreme contempt.

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**Who acts:** Kaffir · **What happens:** approach, have · **To what, where:** frivolity, supreme contempt

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kaffir), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:2:53
# text = For anything approaching frivolity he has a supreme contempt.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	obl	_	_
3	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
4	frivolity	frivolity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	supreme	supreme	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	contempt	contempt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | gerund |  | frivolity |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent frivolity=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | present | Kaffir | a supreme contempt |  |  |  | for anything | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent contempt=Patient |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Project Gutenberg book 71335 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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