---
title: When she brought it, the bird filled it with milk. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When she brought it, the bird filled it with milk. Who acts: wife, bird. 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 53

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When she brought it, the bird filled it with milk.

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**Who acts:** wife, bird · **What happens:** bring, fill · **To what, where:** milk

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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 (wife, bird), 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:pg71335:3:53
# text = When she brought it, the bird filled it with milk.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	filled	fill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past | wife | milk |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **fill** | past | the bird | milk |  |  |  | with milk | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with milk=Instrument |

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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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