---
title: Then the bird said: “Please don’t kill me, and I will make some milk… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the bird said: “Please don’t kill me, and I will make some milk for you to eat.” Who acts: bird, you. 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 31

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Then the bird said: “Please don’t kill me, and I will make some milk for you to eat.”

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**Who acts:** bird, you · **What happens:** say, not kill, make, eat · **To what, where:** bird, milk · **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, you), 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:pg71335:4:31
# text = Then the bird said: “Please don’t kill me, and I will make some milk for you to eat.”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Please	please	INTJ	UH	_	10	discourse	_	_
8	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the bird |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **kill** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  | the bird *= bird* |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 3 | **make** *in a quote* | future | the bird *= bird* | some milk |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent milk=Product |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: 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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