---
title: While he was away, Little Jackal escaped. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was away, Little Jackal escaped. Who acts: Jackal, 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 49

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While he was away, Little Jackal escaped.

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**Who acts:** Jackal, Little Jackal · **What happens:** be, escape

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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, 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:pg71335:25:49
# text = While he was away, Little Jackal escaped.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	away	away	ADV	RB	_	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Jackal	Jackal	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Jackal |  |  |  |  | away *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **escape** | past | Little Jackal |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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