---
title: The cannibal came there, and tried to cut the tree down with his sha… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The cannibal came there, and tried to cut the tree down with his sharp and long nail. Who acts: cannibal. 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 84

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The cannibal came there, and tried to cut the tree down with his sharp and long nail.

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**Who acts:** cannibal · **What happens:** come, try, cut down · **To what, where:** tree

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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 (cannibal), 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:pg71335:4:84
# text = The cannibal came there, and tried to cut the tree down with his sharp and long nail.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
18	nail	nail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the cannibal |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | past | the cannibal *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **cut down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the cannibal *not said here* | the tree |  |  |  | with cannibal's sharp nail; down *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Patient with nail=Instrument |

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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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