---
title: The bushmen then commenced to eat the eland. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The bushmen then commenced to eat the eland. Who acts: bushmen. 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 210

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The bushmen then commenced to eat the eland.

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**Who acts:** bushmen · **What happens:** commence, eat · **To what, where:** eland

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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 (bushmen), 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:pg71335:26:210
# text = The bushmen then commenced to eat the eland.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bushmen	bushman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	commenced	commence	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	eland	eland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **commence** | past | the bushmen |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | the bushmen *not said here* | the eland |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eland=Patient |

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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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