---
title: The cock said: “Give me some food, for I am very hungry.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The cock said: “Give me some food, for I am very hungry.” Who acts: cock. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Tangalimlibo., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Tangalimlibo., sentence 140

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The cock said: “Give me some food, for I am very hungry.”

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**Who acts:** cock · **What happens:** say, give, be · **To what, where:** food, cock · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Tangalimlibo.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cock), 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:pg71335:6:140
# text = The cock said: “Give me some food, for I am very hungry.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
9	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the cock |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | some food | the cock *= cock* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient food=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the cock *= cock* |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | 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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