---
title: They obtained food by hunting animals,—they were hunted by the boy. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They obtained food by hunting animals,—they were hunted by the boy. Who acts: boys, boy. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/129/)

<!-- 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/) / [Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/) / 129

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 129

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They obtained food by hunting animals,—they were hunted by the boy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boys, boy · **What happens:** obtain, hunt · **To what, where:** food, animals, boys

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (boys, boy), 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:pg71335:3:129
# text = They obtained food by hunting animals,—they were hunted by the boy.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	obtained	obtain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
6	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	hunted	hunt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obtain** | past | boys *= boy* | food |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset food=Theme |
| 2 | **hunt** | gerund | boys *= boy* *not said here* | animals |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme |
| 3 | **hunt** | past · passive | the boy | boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |

<!-- .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 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/128/)
- next →: [sentence 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/130/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/)