---
title: The oxen were many which were killed that day. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The oxen were many which were killed that day. Who acts: oxen. 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 29

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The oxen were many which were killed that day.

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**Who acts:** oxen · **What happens:** be, kill

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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 (oxen), 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:pg71335:6:29
# text = The oxen were many which were killed that day.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the oxen |  |  |  |  | many *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** | past · passive |  |  |  |  | day | which *nsubj* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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- ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/28/)
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- ↑ back to [The Story of Tangalimlibo.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/)