---
title: When the animals were gone he laid himself down, but he only pretend… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When the animals were gone he laid himself down, but he only pretended to be asleep. Who acts: 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 54

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When the animals were gone he laid himself down, but he only pretended to be asleep.

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**Who acts:** hare · **What happens:** go, lay down, pretend, be · **To what, where:** animals, hare

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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 (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:pg71335:24:54
# text = When the animals were gone he laid himself down, but he only pretended to be asleep.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
17	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · passive |  | the animals |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **lay down** | past | hare | hare |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Result |
| 3 | **pretend** | past | hare |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |

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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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