---
title: Some of them are skilful in forming knots with thongs and pieces of… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Some of them are skilful in forming knots with thongs and pieces of wood, which it taxes the ingenuity of the others to undo. Who acts: Some, wood. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 29

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Some of them are skilful in forming knots with thongs and pieces of wood, which it taxes the ingenuity of the others to undo.

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**Who acts:** Some, wood · **What happens:** be, form, tax, undo · **To what, where:** knots

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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 (Some, wood), 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:pg71335:32:29
# text = Some of them are skilful in forming knots with thongs and pieces of wood, which it taxes the ingenuity of the others to undo.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nmod	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	skilful	skilful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	forming	form	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	knots	knot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	thongs	thong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	taxes	tax	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ingenuity	ingenuity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	undo	undo	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Some of boys |  |  |  |  | skilful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **form** | gerund | Some of boys *not said here* | knots |  |  |  | with thongs and pieces of wood and taxes | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location knot=Theme |
| 3 | **tax** |  | wood and taxes |  |  |  |  | clay *nsubj*; the ingenuity of the others *appos* | tree rules |
| 4 | **undo** | to-infinitive | wood and taxes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=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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