---
title: One is then selected to guess in whose possession it is. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: One is then selected to guess in whose possession it is. Who acts: possession. 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 53

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One is then selected to guess in whose possession it is.

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**Who acts:** possession · **What happens:** select, guess, be · **To what, where:** One, possession

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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 (possession), 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:pg71335:32:53
# text = One is then selected to guess in whose possession it is.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	selected	select	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **select** | present · passive |  | One |  |  | then |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **guess** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | possession |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **be** | present | possession | possession *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot possession=Theme |

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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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