---
title: They said: “Who ever saw a girl go without a retinue to be a bride?” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said: “Who ever saw a girl go without a retinue to be a bride?” Who acts: people, girl. 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 60

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They said: “Who ever saw a girl go without a retinue to be a bride?”

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**Who acts:** people, girl · **What happens:** say, see, go, be · **To what, where:** bride · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (people, girl), 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:pg71335:5:60
# text = They said: “Who ever saw a girl go without a retinue to be a bride?”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	advmod	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
11	without	without	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	retinue	retinue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  | ever | Who *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | a girl |  |  |  |  | without a retinue | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | a girl *not said here* | a bride |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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