---
title: They kept him with them while he pretended to send the two young men… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They kept him with them while he pretended to send the two young men for the dacha, but privately he told them not to return. Who acts: weapons, rest. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/26/209/)

<!-- 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/) / [Proverbs and Figurative Expressions.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/26/) / 209

# Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 209

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They kept him with them while he pretended to send the two young men for the dacha, but privately he told them not to return.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** weapons, rest · **What happens:** keep, pretend, send, tell, not return · **To what, where:** rest, two young men, weapons · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (weapons, rest), 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:pg71335:26:209
# text = They kept him with them while he pretended to send the two young men for the dacha, but privately he told them not to return.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
6	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
13	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	dacha	dacha	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	privately	privately	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | weapons *= weapon* | rest |  |  |  | with species | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **pretend** | past | rest |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **send** | to-infinitive | rest *not said here* | the two young men |  |  |  | for the dacha | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | rest |  | weapons *= weapon* |  |  | privately *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **return** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 208](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/26/208/)
- next →: [sentence 210](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/26/210/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs and Figurative Expressions.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/26/)