---
title: A mouse can be skinned without any one seeing it, but an ox cannot. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: A mouse can be skinned without any one seeing it, but an ox cannot. Who acts: one. 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 167

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A mouse can be skinned without any one seeing it, but an ox cannot.

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**Who acts:** one · **What happens:** skin, see · **To what, where:** mouse

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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), 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:pg71335:26:167
# text = A mouse can be skinned without any one seeing it, but an ox cannot.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	skinned	skin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	without	without	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **skin** | can · passive |  | a mouse |  |  |  | without any one | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **see** | gerund | any one *not said here* | mouse |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

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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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