---
title: The ntengu is rather larger than a swallow, and is of a bright bluis… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The ntengu is rather larger than a swallow, and is of a bright bluish-black colour. Who acts: ntengu. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Runaway Children., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/35/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Runaway Children.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/35/) / 8

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children., sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The ntengu is rather larger than a swallow, and is of a bright bluish-black colour.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ntengu · **What happens:** be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Runaway Children.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ntengu), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:35:8
# text = The ntengu is rather larger than a swallow, and is of a bright bluish-black colour.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ntengu	ntengu	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
14	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
15	bluish	bluish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the ntengu |  |  |  |  | than a swallow and a bright black colour; large *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | the ntengu *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of a bright black colour | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/35/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/35/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Runaway Children.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/35/)