---
title: They agreed that one of their number should remain to be the keeper… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They agreed that one of their number should remain to be the keeper of the gate. Who acts: animals, one. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Hare., 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/pg71335/24/2/)

<!-- 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 Hare.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/24/) / 2

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Hare., sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They agreed that one of their number should remain to be the keeper of the gate.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** animals, one · **What happens:** agree, remain, be · **To what, where:** keeper · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Hare.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animals, one), 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:pg71335:24:2
# text = They agreed that one of their number should remain to be the keeper of the gate.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	keeper	keeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	xcomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | animals *= animal* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **remain** | should | one of animals's number |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive | one of animals's number *not said here* | the keeper |  |  |  | of the gate | 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 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/24/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/24/3/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Hare.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/24/)