---
title: The biggest boy holds the blades between the fingers and thumb of hi… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The biggest boy holds the blades between the fingers and thumb of his closed hand, and whoever draws the blade with the knot has to act as herdsman. Who acts: biggest boy, whoever, knot. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume., with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/32/26/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Story of Sikulume.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/32/) / 26

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The biggest boy holds the blades between the fingers and thumb of his closed hand, and whoever draws the blade with the knot has to act as herdsman.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** biggest boy, whoever, knot · **What happens:** hold, close, draw, have, act · **To what, where:** blades, fingers, blade

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (biggest boy, whoever, knot), 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:pg71335:32:26
# text = The biggest boy holds the blades between the fingers and thumb of his closed hand, and whoever draws the blade with the knot has to act as herdsman.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	biggest	big	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	holds	hold	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	blades	blade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	between	between	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	draws	draw	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	act	act	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	herdsman	herdsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | present | the biggest boy | the blades |  | the fingers and thumb of knot's closed hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent blade=Theme between finger=Location |
| 2 | **close** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **draw** | present | whoever | the blade |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blade=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | present | the knot |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **act** | to-infinitive | the knot *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as herdsman | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as herdsman=Attribute |

<!-- .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 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/32/25/)
- next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/32/27/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Sikulume.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/32/)