---
title: They killed him, and then returned to tell the men of their tribe wh… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They killed him, and then returned to tell the men of their tribe what they had done. Who acts: children. 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 29

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They killed him, and then returned to tell the men of their tribe what they had done.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** kill, return, tell, do · **To what, where:** cannibal, men, tribe · **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 (children), 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:pg71335:23:29
# text = They killed him, and then returned to tell the men of their tribe what they had done.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
7	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** | past | children *= child* | cannibal |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **return** | past | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | children *= child* *not said here* |  | the men of children's tribe |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent man=Recipient |
| 4 | **do** | past · perfect | children *= child* | children's tribe |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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