---
title: Masilo’s children said: “Our father will this day kill us, therefore… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Masilo’s children said: “Our father will this day kill us, therefore we must go after the bird.” Who acts: children, father, we. 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 65

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Masilo’s children said: “Our father will this day kill us, therefore we must go after the bird.”

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**Who acts:** children, father, we · **What happens:** say, kill, go · **To what, where:** us · **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 (children, father, we), 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:pg71335:4:65
# text = Masilo’s children said: “Our father will this day kill us, therefore we must go after the bird.”
1	Masilo	Masilo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’s	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
13	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
19	after	after	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	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 | Masilo's children |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **kill** *in a quote* | future | Our father | us |  |  | day |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | must | we |  |  |  | after the bird | therefore *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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