---
title: Her husband said: “How can such a thing be? — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Her husband said: “How can such a thing be? Who acts: husband, thing. 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 16

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Her husband said: “How can such a thing be?

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**Who acts:** husband, thing · **What happens:** say, be · **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 (husband, thing), 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:pg71335:3:16
# text = Her husband said: “How can such a thing be?
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
8	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	10	det:predet	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | woman's husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **can** *in a quote* | can | such thing |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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