---
title: The animal replied: “Come nearer, I cannot hear you.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The animal replied: “Come nearer, I cannot hear you.” Who acts: animal. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals., sentence 10

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The animal replied: “Come nearer, I cannot hear you.”

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**Who acts:** animal · **What happens:** reply, come, not hear · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animal), 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:pg71335:23:10
# text = The animal replied: “Come nearer, I cannot hear you.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	animal	animal	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	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	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 animal |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **hear** *in a quote* | can | the animal *= animal* | you |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |

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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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