---
title: They said to themselves: “If our father finds us, he will kill us to… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said to themselves: “If our father finds us, he will kill us to-day.” Who acts: children, father. 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 108

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They said to themselves: “If our father finds us, he will kill us to-day.”

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**Who acts:** children, father · **What happens:** say, find, kill · **To what, where:** children, us · **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 (children, father), 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:pg71335:3:108
# text = They said to themselves: “If our father finds us, he will kill us to-day.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	finds	find	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
11	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
16	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | children *= child* |  | children *= child* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to themselves=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **find** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | our father | us |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Topic |
| 3 | **kill** *in a quote* | future | father | us |  |  | day |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |

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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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