---
title: They said to her: “Whom do you choose to be your husband?” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said to her: “Whom do you choose to be your husband?” Who acts: boys, woman. 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 147

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They said to her: “Whom do you choose to be your husband?”

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**Who acts:** boys, woman · **What happens:** say, choose, be · **To what, where:** woman, husband · **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 (boys, woman), 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:pg71335:3:147
# text = They said to her: “Whom do you choose to be your husband?”
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	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
8	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
13	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | boys *= boy* |  | woman |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **choose** *in a quote* | present · do-support | woman |  |  |  |  | Whom *obj* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* | your husband |  |  |  | your *nmod:poss* | tree rules |

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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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