---
title: From its appearance it cannot be said with certainty whether a water… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: From its appearance it cannot be said with certainty whether a water-melon is ripe or not. Who acts: water melon. 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 53

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From its appearance it cannot be said with certainty whether a water-melon is ripe or not.

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**Who acts:** water melon · **What happens:** not say, be · **To what, where:** resolution, appearance · **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 (water melon), 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:pg71335:26:53
# text = From its appearance it cannot be said with certainty whether a water-melon is ripe or not.
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	certainty	certainty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	melon	melon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	ripe	ripe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	advcl	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | can · passive |  | resolution |  | resolution's appearance |  | with certainty | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: subject=Theme with certainty=Manner |
| 2 | **is** | present | a water melon |  |  |  |  | ripe *property* | tree rules |

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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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