---
title: When he felt hungry, he spoke to the horns, but nothing came out. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When he felt hungry, he spoke to the horns, but nothing came out. Who acts: boy, nothing. 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 23

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When he felt hungry, he spoke to the horns, but nothing came out.

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**Who acts:** boy, nothing · **What happens:** feel, speak, come out · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, nothing), 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:pg71335:21:23
# text = When he felt hungry, he spoke to the horns, but nothing came out.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	14	nsubj	_	_
14	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	out	out	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | boy |  |  |  |  | to the horns | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to horn=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **come out** | past | nothing |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=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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