---
title: At a very early age they commence trials of skill against each other… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: At a very early age they commence trials of skill against each other in throwing knobbed sticks and imitation assagais. Who acts: stations. 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 4

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At a very early age they commence trials of skill against each other in throwing knobbed sticks and imitation assagais.

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**Who acts:** stations · **What happens:** commence, throw, try · **To what, where:** trials, early age, knobbed sticks, skill

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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 (stations), 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:pg71335:32:4
# text = At a very early age they commence trials of skill against each other in throwing knobbed sticks and imitation assagais.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	early	early	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	commence	commence	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	trials	trial	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	against	against	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	7	obl	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	fixed	_	_
14	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
16	knobbed	knobbed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	imitation	imitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	assagais	assagai	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **commence** | present | stations *= station* | trials of skill |  |  | at a early age | against each | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trial=Eventuality |
| 2 | **throw** | gerund | stations *= station* *not said here* | knobbed sticks and imitation assagais |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |
| 3 | **try** |  |  | skill |  |  |  |  | nom trial «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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