---
title: It is equivalent to our English saying, It is no use building castle… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: It is equivalent to our English saying, It is no use building castles in the air. Who acts: reach, our. 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 22

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It is equivalent to our English saying, It is no use building castles in the air.

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**Who acts:** reach, our · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** use building castles, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (reach, our), 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:pg71335:26:22
# text = It is equivalent to our English saying, It is no use building castles in the air.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	equivalent	equivalent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	saying	saying	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
12	use	used	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	building	building	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	castles	castle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | reach |  |  |  |  | to our English saying; equivalent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | present | reach | no use building castles |  | the air |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom saying «communication transitive»: 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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