---
title: He ran under an overhanging rock and sang out: “Help! help! this roc… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He ran under an overhanging rock and sang out: “Help! help! this rock is falling upon me!” Who acts: Jackal, Help. 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 47

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He ran under an overhanging rock and sang out: “Help! help! this rock is falling upon me!”

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**Who acts:** Jackal, Help · **What happens:** run, overhang, sing out, fall · **To what, where:** overhanging rock · **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 (Jackal, Help), 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:pg71335:25:47
# text = He ran under an overhanging rock and sang out: “Help! help! this rock is falling upon me!”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	under	under	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	overhanging	overhang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	amod	_	_
6	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
14	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | Jackal |  |  | a overhanging rock |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under rock=Trajectory |
| 2 | **overhang** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sing out** *speech: express* | past | Jackal *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fall** *in a quote* | present · progressive | Help |  |  |  |  | upon Jackal; this rock *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon i=Location |

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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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