---
title: He said: “The enemies of my father’s house did that; you, my wife, a… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said: “The enemies of my father’s house did that; you, my wife, are stronger than they.” Who acts: man, enemies, you. 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/pg71335/3/152/)

<!-- 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/) / 152

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 152

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said: “The enemies of my father’s house did that; you, my wife, are stronger than they.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, enemies, you · **What happens:** say, do, be · **To what, where:** that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (man, enemies, you), 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:pg71335:3:152
# text = He said: “The enemies of my father’s house did that; you, my wife, are stronger than they.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	enemies	enemy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
12	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	parataxis	_	_
22	than	than	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | past | the enemies of my father's house | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | than enemies *= enemy*; strong *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 151](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/151/)
- next →: [sentence 153](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/153/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/)