---
title: At midday the bird sent word to the chief, saying, “Command all your… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: At midday the bird sent word to the chief, saying, “Command all your people to spread mats in all the paths.” Who acts: bird. 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 94

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At midday the bird sent word to the chief, saying, “Command all your people to spread mats in all the paths.”

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**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** send, say, command, spread · **To what, where:** word, midday, people, mats, paths · **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 (bird), 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:pg71335:4:94
# text = At midday the bird sent word to the chief, saying, “Command all your people to spread mats in all the paths.”
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	midday	midday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Command	command	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
15	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	17	det:predet	_	_
16	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	spread	spread	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	mats	mat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	24	det:predet	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	paths	path	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | the bird | word |  | midday |  | to the chief | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent word=Theme to chief=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **command** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | your people |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent people=Theme |
| 4 | **spread** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | mats |  | all paths |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent mat=Theme in path=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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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