---
title: Yet they were telling the truth according to their ideas. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Yet they were telling the truth according to their ideas. Who acts: Europeans. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Demane and Demazana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Demane and Demazana., sentence 3

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Yet they were telling the truth according to their ideas.

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**Who acts:** Europeans · **What happens:** tell, accord · **To what, where:** truth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Demane and Demazana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Europeans), 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:pg71335:34:3
# text = Yet they were telling the truth according to their ideas.
1	Yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	case	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	fixed	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	ideas	idea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | Europeans *= european* | the truth |  |  |  | accord Europeans's ideas | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent truth=Recipient |
| 2 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: 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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