---
title: He said: “Did not Little Jackal bring a message to my children to ca… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said: “Did not Little Jackal bring a message to my children to carry meat?” Who acts: Lion, Little Jackal. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of Lion and Little Jackal., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Lion and Little Jackal., sentence 14

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He said: “Did not Little Jackal bring a message to my children to carry meat?”

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**Who acts:** Lion, Little Jackal · **What happens:** say, bring, carry · **To what, where:** message, children, meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of Lion and Little Jackal.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, Little Jackal), 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:pg71335:25:14
# text = He said: “Did not Little Jackal bring a message to my children to carry meat?”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	Jackal	Jackal	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	message	message	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
17	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	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 | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **bring** *in a quote* | past · do-support | Little Jackal | a message | my children |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent message=Theme to child=Destination |
| 3 | **carry** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Little Jackal *not said here* | meat |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Theme |

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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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