---
title: She said in her heart, “I will not cut the grass off again, I will j… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: She said in her heart, “I will not cut the grass off again, I will just hoe the ground as it is.” Who acts: thing, ground. 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 23

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She said in her heart, “I will not cut the grass off again, I will just hoe the ground as it is.”

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**Who acts:** thing, ground · **What happens:** say, not cut off, hoe, be · **To what, where:** heart, grass, ground · **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 (thing, ground), 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:pg71335:3:23
# text = She said in her heart, “I will not cut the grass off again, I will just hoe the ground as it is.”
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|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	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
15	again	again	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	just	just	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	hoe	hoe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	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 | thing |  |  | thing's heart |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **cut off** *in a quote* | future | thing | the grass |  |  | again |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector grass=Eventuality |
| 3 | **hoe** *in a quote* | future | thing | the ground |  |  |  |  | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ground=Theme |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | ground |  |  |  |  |  | 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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