---
title: There was once a man who quarrelled with his wife, so that she left… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a man who quarrelled with his wife, so that she left him, and went home to her father’s place. Who acts: man, wife. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Glutton., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Glutton., sentence 1

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There was once a man who quarrelled with his wife, so that she left him, and went home to her father’s place.

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**Who acts:** man, wife · **What happens:** be, quarrell, leave, go · **To what, where:** man, place

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Glutton.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, wife), 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:pg71335:22:1
# text = There was once a man who quarrelled with his wife, so that she left him, and went home to her father’s place.
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	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	quarrelled	quarrell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	15	mark	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
20	home	home	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	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 man |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **quarrell** | past | a man |  |  |  |  | with man's wife | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** | past | wife | man |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past | wife *not said here* |  |  | wife's father's place |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to place=Initial\_Location |

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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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