---
title: They promised him that they would not kill him, and after a good dea… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They promised him that they would not kill him, and after a good deal of persuasion he at last agreed to keep the gate. Who acts: animals, hare. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Hare., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Hare., sentence 53

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They promised him that they would not kill him, and after a good deal of persuasion he at last agreed to keep the gate.

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**Who acts:** animals, hare · **What happens:** promise, not kill, agree, keep, deal · **To what, where:** hare, good deal, gate, persuasion

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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, 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:pg71335:24:53
# text = They promised him that they would not kill him, and after a good deal of persuasion he at last agreed to keep the gate.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	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	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	persuasion	persuasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	agreed	agree	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | animals *= animal* |  | hare |  |  | a good deal of persuasion *parataxis* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **kill** | would | animals *= animal* | hare |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | participle | hare | a good deal of persuasion *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: agent=Agent deal=Co-Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **keep** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | hare *not said here* | the gate |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gate=Theme |
| 5 | **deal** |  |  | persuasion |  |  |  |  | nom deal «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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