---
title: When the woman returned, the hare told her what had happened. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When the woman returned, the hare told her what had happened. Who acts: woman, 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.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals., sentence 7

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When the woman returned, the hare told her what had happened.

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**Who acts:** woman, hare · **What happens:** return, tell, happen · **To what, where:** woman · **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 (woman, hare), 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:pg71335:23:7
# text = When the woman returned, the hare told her what had happened.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | the woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the hare |  | woman |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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