---
title: You will meet with trees that will laugh at you: you must not laugh… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: You will meet with trees that will laugh at you: you must not laugh in return. Who acts: You, trees. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Five Heads., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Five Heads., sentence 38

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You will meet with trees that will laugh at you: you must not laugh in return.

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**Who acts:** You, trees · **What happens:** meet, laugh, not laugh

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Five Heads.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, trees), 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:pg71335:5:38
# text = You will meet with trees that will laugh at you: you must not laugh in return.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | future | You |  |  |  |  | with trees | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with tree=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **laugh** | future | trees |  |  |  |  | at you | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **laugh** | must | you |  |  |  |  | in return | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in return=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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