---
title: They told him of Tangalimlibo’s going to the river and not returning. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They told him of Tangalimlibo’s going to the river and not returning. Who acts: children. 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 82

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They told him of Tangalimlibo’s going to the river and not returning.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** tell, go, not return · **To what, where:** father, river · **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 (children), 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:pg71335:6:82
# text = They told him of Tangalimlibo’s going to the river and not returning.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Tangalimlibo	Tangalimlibo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	returning	return	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | children *= child* |  | father |  |  | of Tangalimlibo | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** | gerund |  |  |  | the river |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to river=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **not** **return** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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