---
title: The girl said to her brother Gingci: “Why does father get fat and we… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl said to her brother Gingci: “Why does father get fat and we remain so thin?” Who acts: girl, we. 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/pg71335/3/62/)

<!-- 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/) / 62

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The girl said to her brother Gingci: “Why does father get fat and we remain so thin?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** girl, we · **What happens:** say, get, remain · **To what, where:** brother · **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 (girl, we), 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:pg71335:3:62
# text = The girl said to her brother Gingci: “Why does father get fat and we remain so thin?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	Gingci	Gingci	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
14	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	remain	remain	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the girl |  | girl's brother |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to brother=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **get** *in a quote* | present · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | father *compound*; fat *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **remain** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  | thin *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/61/)
- next →: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/63/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/3/)