---
title: The chief’s sister said: “What is the object of your coming to this… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief’s sister said: “What is the object of your coming to this place?” Who acts: sister, your. 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 94

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The chief’s sister said: “What is the object of your coming to this place?”

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**Who acts:** sister, your · **What happens:** say, be, come · **To what, where:** object · **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 (sister, your), 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:pg71335:5:94
# text = The chief’s sister said: “What is the object of your coming to this place?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
12	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	acl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	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 | the chief's sister |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the object |  |  |  | What *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | gerund | your | the object *not said here* |  |  |  | to this place | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location object=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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