---
title: Then he caught it, and said: “Ah! is it you who eat the work of our… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he caught it, and said: “Ah! is it you who eat the work of our hands?” Who acts: Bird, ground, hands. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 29

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Then he caught it, and said: “Ah! is it you who eat the work of our hands?”

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**Who acts:** Bird, ground, hands · **What happens:** catch, say, be, eat, work · **To what, where:** ground, you, work · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bird, ground, hands), 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:pg71335:4:29
# text = Then he caught it, and said: “Ah! is it you who eat the work of our hands?”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	14	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	ccomp	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | Bird | ground |  |  | then |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | ground | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | present |  | the work of our hands |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Patient |
| 5 | **work** *in a quote* |  | our hands |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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