---
title: They are nearly naked, but wear ornaments of brass around their wais… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They are nearly naked, but wear ornaments of brass around their waists. Who acts: men. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Five Heads., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Five Heads., sentence 42

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They are nearly naked, but wear ornaments of brass around their waists.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** be, wear · **To what, where:** ornaments, waists

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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: who acts (men), 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:pg71335:28:42
# text = They are nearly naked, but wear ornaments of brass around their waists.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	wear	wear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
8	ornaments	ornament	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	around	around	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	waists	waist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | naked, nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wear** | present |  | ornaments of brass |  | men's waists |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent ornament=Source |

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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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