---
title: His wife replied: “No; he has not been here. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife replied: “No; he has not been here. Who acts: wife, Lion. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/25/15/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [Story of Lion and Little Jackal.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/25/) / 15

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Lion and Little Jackal., sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His wife replied: “No; he has not been here.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, Lion · **What happens:** reply, not be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wife, Lion), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:25:15
# text = His wife replied: “No; he has not been here.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
12	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Lion's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Lion |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/25/14/)
- next →: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/25/16/)
- ↑ back to [Story of Lion and Little Jackal.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/25/)