---
title: In practice the umdudo is often deferred to a convenient season, yet… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: In practice the umdudo is often deferred to a convenient season, yet the woman is considered not less a wife, and her children not less legal, provided always that the transfer of cattle has taken place according to agreement. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Fiv
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/28/12/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Story of Five Heads.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/28/) / 12

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Five Heads., sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In practice the umdudo is often deferred to a convenient season, yet the woman is considered not less a wife, and her children not less legal, provided always that the transfer of cattle has taken place according to agreement.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** defer, consider, provide, take, accord, transfer · **To what, where:** umdudo, practice, woman, transfer, cattle

<!-- .vabout -->
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.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:28:12
# text = In practice the umdudo is often deferred to a convenient season, yet the woman is considered not less a wife, and her children not less legal, provided always that the transfer of cattle has taken place according to agreement.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	practice	practice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	umdudo	umdudo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
6	often	often	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	deferred	defer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	convenient	convenient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	considered	consider	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	17	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	28	advmod	_	_
28	legal	legal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	provided	provide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	conj	_	_
31	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	30	advmod	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	transfer	transfer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
37	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	conj	_	_
39	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
40	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	42	case	_	_
41	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	fixed	_	_
42	agreement	agreement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **defer** | present · passive |  | the umdudo |  | practice | season | often *property* | vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: subject=Source |
| 2 | **consider** | present · passive |  | the woman |  |  |  | a wife *xcomp*; less *property* | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute |
| 3 | **provide** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition |
| 4 | **take** | present · perfect · passive |  | the transfer of cattle |  |  |  | place *obj* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme place=Destination |
| 5 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **transfer** |  |  | cattle |  |  |  |  | nom transfer «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/28/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/28/13/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Five Heads.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/28/)