---
title: They tried to watch and to see what he was eating, but they never co… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They tried to watch and to see what he was eating, but they never could find out at all. Who acts: people, 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 49

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They tried to watch and to see what he was eating, but they never could find out at all.

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**Who acts:** people, Masilo · **What happens:** try, watch, see, eat, not find out · **To what, where:** all · **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 (people, 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:pg71335:4:49
# text = They tried to watch and to see what he was eating, but they never could find out at all.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **watch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **eat** | past · progressive | Masilo |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **find out** | could | people |  |  | all |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: 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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