---
title: They said: “How can an inkalimeva be without a tail?” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said: “How can an inkalimeva be without a tail?” Who acts: tails, inkalimeva. 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 70

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They said: “How can an inkalimeva be without a tail?”

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**Who acts:** tails, inkalimeva · **What happens:** say, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (tails, inkalimeva), 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:pg71335:24:70
# text = They said: “How can an inkalimeva be without a tail?”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	inkalimeva	inkalimeva	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
10	without	without	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | tails *= tail* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | can | a inkalimeva |  |  |  |  | without a tail | 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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