---
title: It means, a man’s actions, not his talk and boasting, are what peopl… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: It means, a man’s actions, not his talk and boasting, are what people judge of his greatness by. Who acts: One, people, man. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 136

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It means, a man’s actions, not his talk and boasting, are what people judge of his greatness by.

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**Who acts:** One, people, man · **What happens:** mean, be, judge, act, talk · **To what, where:** actions

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One, people, man), 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:pg71335:26:136
# text = It means, a man’s actions, not his talk and boasting, are what people judge of his greatness by.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	actions	action	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	boasting	boasting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	obl	_	_
17	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	judge	judge	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	greatness	greatness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	obl	_	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 | **mean** | present | One | a man's actions  man's talk and boasting |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent action=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **judge** | present | people |  |  |  |  | of man's greatness | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V NP.attribute»: agent=Agent of greatness=Theme |
| 4 | **act** |  | a man |  |  |  |  |  | nom action «act intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **talk** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom talk «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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