---
title: In the middle of the night the nurse went down to the river with the… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the night the nurse went down to the river with the child, singing this song: Who acts: nurse. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Tangalimlibo., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/65/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Story of Tangalimlibo.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/) / 65

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Tangalimlibo., sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the middle of the night the nurse went down to the river with the child, singing this song:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** nurse · **What happens:** go down, sing · **To what, where:** song

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (nurse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:6:65
# text = In the middle of the night the nurse went down to the river with the child, singing this song:
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | the nurse |  |  |  |  | to the river with the child; in the middle of the night; down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in middle=Attribute |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the nurse *not said here* | this song |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/64/)
- next →: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/66/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Tangalimlibo.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/6/)