---
title: “It is foolish, It is foolish to be a traveller, And to go on a jour… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is foolish, It is foolish to be a traveller, And to go on a journey With the blood of girls upon one! Who acts: song. 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 87

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“It is foolish, It is foolish to be a traveller, And to go on a journey With the blood of girls upon one!

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**Who acts:** song · **What happens:** be, go · **To what, where:** traveller, journey

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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 (song), 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:pg71335:4:87
# text = “It is foolish, It is foolish to be a traveller, And to go on a journey With the blood of girls upon one!
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	traveller	traveller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	With	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | song |  |  |  |  | foolish *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | song |  |  |  |  | foolish *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | song *not said here* | a traveller |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | song *not said here* |  |  | a journey with the blood of girls |  | upon one | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on journey=Location |

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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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