---
title: In this story some liberty is taken with the Kaffir marriage ceremon… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: In this story some liberty is taken with the Kaffir marriage ceremonies, a description of which will serve as a key to much that is contained in several of these tales. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Five Heads., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Five Heads., sentence 1

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In this story some liberty is taken with the Kaffir marriage ceremonies, a description of which will serve as a key to much that is contained in several of these tales.

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**What happens:** take, serve, contain · **To what, where:** liberty, story, much, several

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Five Heads.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg71335:28:1
# text = In this story some liberty is taken with the Kaffir marriage ceremonies, a description of which will serve as a key to much that is contained in several of these tales.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	liberty	liberty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	Kaffir	Kaffir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
11	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	ceremonies	ceremony	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	description	description	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
23	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	contained	contain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | present · passive |  | some liberty |  | this story |  | with the Kaffir marriage ceremonies; as a key | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Theme as key=Attribute |
| 2 | **serve** | future |  |  |  |  |  | of a description | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **contain** | present · passive |  | much |  | several of this tales |  | that *nsubj:pass* | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Value in several=Location |

<!-- .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.

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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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- ← previous: [Story of the Bird That Made…, 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/27/36/)
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- ↑ back to [The Story of Five Heads.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/28/)