---
title: After drinking they said: “Let it dance for us,” and they loosened i… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: After drinking they said: “Let it dance for us,” and they loosened it from the place where it was tied. Who acts: others, cause. 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 62

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After drinking they said: “Let it dance for us,” and they loosened it from the place where it was tied.

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**Who acts:** others, cause · **What happens:** drink, say, let, dance, loosen, tie · **To what, where:** cause, place · **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 (others, cause), 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:pg71335:4:62
# text = After drinking they said: “Let it dance for us,” and they loosened it from the place where it was tied.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	drinking	drink	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	loosened	loosen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	24	advmod	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drink** | gerund | others *= other* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | cause |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **dance** *in a quote* | infinitive | cause *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for us | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **loosen** | past | others *= other* | cause |  | the place |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 6 | **tie** | past · passive |  | cause |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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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