---
title: The girls then give room to the men and women, who form themselves i… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The girls then give room to the men and women, who form themselves in lines in the same manner, and dance until it is decided which of them surpass the others. Who acts: girls. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., with it
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/30/17/)

<!-- 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 Girl Who Disregarded the…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/30/) / 17

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The girls then give room to the men and women, who form themselves in lines in the same manner, and dance until it is decided which of them surpass the others.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** girls · **What happens:** give, form, decide, surpass · **To what, where:** room, men, lines, dance, others · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls), 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:pg71335:30:17
# text = The girls then give room to the men and women, who form themselves in lines in the same manner, and dance until it is decided which of them surpass the others.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	form	form	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	lines	line	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
31	surpass	surpass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | present | the girls | room | the men and women |  | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent room=Theme to man=Recipient |
| 2 | **form** | present |  | men *= man* |  | lines in the same manner |  | who *nsubj* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location themselves=Theme |
| 3 | **decide** | present · passive |  | dance |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: subject=Co-Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **surpass** | infinitive |  | the others |  |  |  | of men *= man*; which *nsubj* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot other=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 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/30/16/)
- next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/30/18/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/30/)