---
title: The Kaffir is a perfect slave to charms, and hardly ever undertakes… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The Kaffir is a perfect slave to charms, and hardly ever undertakes any matter of importance without using them. Who acts: Kaffir, importance. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., sentence 15

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The Kaffir is a perfect slave to charms, and hardly ever undertakes any matter of importance without using them.

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**Who acts:** Kaffir, importance · **What happens:** be, undertake, use, matter · **To what, where:** perfect slave, matter, matters

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Simbukumbukwana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kaffir, importance), 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:pg71335:31:15
# text = The Kaffir is a perfect slave to charms, and hardly ever undertakes any matter of importance without using them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Kaffir	Kaffir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	charms	charm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	13	advmod	_	_
13	undertakes	undertake	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	importance	importance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	using	use	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the Kaffir | a perfect slave |  |  |  | to charms | tree rules |
| 2 | **undertake** | present | the Kaffir *not said here* | any matter of importance |  |  | ever | hardly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent matter=Eventuality |
| 3 | **use** | gerund | the Kaffir *not said here* | matters *= matter* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **matter** |  | importance |  |  |  |  |  | nom matter «cognition intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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