---
title: They commenced to eat, and when they were finished, Masilo charged h… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They commenced to eat, and when they were finished, Masilo charged his children, saying, Who acts: pots, Masilo. 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 41

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They commenced to eat, and when they were finished, Masilo charged his children, saying,

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**Who acts:** pots, Masilo · **What happens:** commence, eat, finish, charge, say · **To what, where:** pots, children · **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 (pots, Masilo), 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:pg71335:4:41
# text = They commenced to eat, and when they were finished, Masilo charged his children, saying,
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	commenced	commence	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	Masilo	Masilo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	charged	charge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **commence** | past | pots *= pot* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | pots *= pot* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **finish** | past · passive |  | pots *= pot* |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |
| 4 | **charge** | past | Masilo | Masilo's children |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location child=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Masilo *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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