---
title: The boy caught one, and said to it: “My father’s bird, make milk.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy caught one, and said to it: “My father’s bird, make milk.” Who acts: boy, bird. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 102

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The boy caught one, and said to it: “My father’s bird, make milk.”

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**Who acts:** boy, bird · **What happens:** catch, say, make · **To what, where:** one, tree, milk · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, bird), 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:pg71335:3:102
# text = The boy caught one, and said to it: “My father’s bird, make milk.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
18	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | the boy | one |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the boy *not said here* |  | tree |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to it=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **make** *in a quote* | infinitive | My father's bird | milk |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent milk=Product |

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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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