---
title: They began to search, and at length they found a piece of the tail i… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They began to search, and at length they found a piece of the tail in the fence. Who acts: tails. 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 71

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They began to search, and at length they found a piece of the tail in the fence.

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**Who acts:** tails · **What happens:** begin, search, find · **To what, where:** piece, length

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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), 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:pg71335:24:71
# text = They began to search, and at length they found a piece of the tail in the fence.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	search	search	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | tails *= tail* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **search** | to-infinitive | tails *= tail* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find** | past | tails *= tail* | a piece of the tail |  | length |  | in the fence | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent piece=Theme at length=Asset |

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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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