---
title: His councillors were standing at a distance, afraid to approach him,… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: His councillors were standing at a distance, afraid to approach him, so they sent a monkey to see how he was. Who acts: councillors, hare. 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/pg71335/23/19/)

<!-- 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/) / 19

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals., sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His councillors were standing at a distance, afraid to approach him, so they sent a monkey to see how he was.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** councillors, hare · **What happens:** stand, approach, send, see, be · **To what, where:** hare, monkey · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (councillors, hare), 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:pg71335:23:19
# text = His councillors were standing at a distance, afraid to approach him, so they sent a monkey to see how he was.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	councillors	councillor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	approach	approach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	ccomp	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | hare's councillors |  |  |  |  | at a distance | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at distance=Location |
| 2 | **approach** | to-infinitive | hare's councillors *not said here* | hare |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **send** | past | councillors *= councillor* | a monkey |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent monkey=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | councillors *= councillor* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | hare |  |  |  |  | how *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/20/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Great Chief of the Animals.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/23/)