---
title: The man replied: “My stomach has been borrowed by an ant.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The man replied: “My stomach has been borrowed by an ant.” Who acts: man, ant. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Another Story of Kenkebe., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Another Story of Kenkebe., sentence 18

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The man replied: “My stomach has been borrowed by an ant.”

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**Who acts:** man, ant · **What happens:** reply, borrow · **To what, where:** stomach · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Another Story of Kenkebe.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, ant), 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:pg71335:20:18
# text = The man replied: “My stomach has been borrowed by an ant.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	stomach	stomach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	borrowed	borrow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **borrow** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive | a ant | My stomach |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |

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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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