---
title: Three or four children stand with their closed hands on top of each… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Three or four children stand with their closed hands on top of each other, so as to form a column. Who acts: Three children. 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 56

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Three or four children stand with their closed hands on top of each other, so as to form a column.

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**Who acts:** Three children · **What happens:** stand, close, form · **To what, where:** column

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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 (Three children), 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:pg71335:32:56
# text = Three or four children stand with their closed hands on top of each other, so as to form a column.
1	Three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
2	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	1	conj	_	_
4	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	stand	stand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	_
9	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	nmod	_	_
14	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	form	form	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	column	column	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | present | Three children |  |  |  |  | with children's closed hands on top of each | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **close** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **form** | to-infinitive | Three children *not said here* | a column |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location column=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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