---
title: When a Kaffir girl arrives at the age of puberty, messengers are sen… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When a Kaffir girl arrives at the age of puberty, messengers are sent by her father to all the neighbouring villages to invite the young women to attend the “Ntonjane.” Who acts: Kaffir girl, father, young women. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregar
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 6

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When a Kaffir girl arrives at the age of puberty, messengers are sent by her father to all the neighbouring villages to invite the young women to attend the “Ntonjane.”

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**Who acts:** Kaffir girl, father, young women · **What happens:** arrive, send, invite, attend · **To what, where:** age, messengers, neighbouring villages, young women, Ntonjane

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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 (Kaffir girl, father, young women), 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:pg71335:30:6
# text = When a Kaffir girl arrives at the age of puberty, messengers are sent by her father to all the neighbouring villages to invite the young women to attend the “Ntonjane.”
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Kaffir	Kaffir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	arrives	arrive	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	puberty	puberty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	neighbouring	neighbouring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	villages	village	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	invite	invite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	Ntonjane	Ntonjane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | present | a Kaffir girl |  |  |  | at the age of puberty |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **send** | present · passive | girl's father | messengers |  | all neighbouring villages |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Theme to village=Destination |
| 3 | **invite** | to-infinitive | girl's father *not said here* | the young women |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent woman=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **attend** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the young women *not said here* |  | the Ntonjane |  |  |  | vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ntonjane=Goal |

<!-- .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.

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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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