---
title: There was once a boy whose mother that bore him was dead, and he was… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a boy whose mother that bore him was dead, and he was ill-treated by his other mothers. Who acts: boy, mother. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Wonderful Horns., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Wonderful Horns., sentence 1

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There was once a boy whose mother that bore him was dead, and he was ill-treated by his other mothers.

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**Who acts:** boy, mother · **What happens:** be, bear, treat · **To what, where:** boy

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Wonderful Horns.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, mother), 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:pg71335:21:1
# text = There was once a boy whose mother that bore him was dead, and he was ill-treated by his other mothers.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	bore	bear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	treated	treat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a boy |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bear** | past | mother | boy |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | mother |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **treat** | participle | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by boy's other mothers | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent |

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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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