---
title: The children were hungry, so the woman with her pieces of iron cut s… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The children were hungry, so the woman with her pieces of iron cut some pieces of flesh from the animal’s ribs. Who acts: children, woman. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/13/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [Story of the Great Chief of the Animals.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/) / 13

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals., sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The children were hungry, so the woman with her pieces of iron cut some pieces of flesh from the animal’s ribs.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, woman · **What happens:** be, cut · **To what, where:** pieces, ribs

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (children, woman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:23:13
# text = The children were hungry, so the woman with her pieces of iron cut some pieces of flesh from the animal’s ribs.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	cut	cut	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	ribs	rib	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut** | present | the woman with woman's pieces of iron | some pieces of flesh |  | the animal's ribs |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.product PP.material»: agent=Agent piece=Product from rib=Material |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/14/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Great Chief of the Animals.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/)