---
title: In her curiosity she went close to the precipice, when it fell down… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: In her curiosity she went close to the precipice, when it fell down on her, and, as the milk ran over her, all her ugly blotched skin disappeared, and she was again beautiful as at first. Who acts: thing, precipice, ugly blotched skin. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story o
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 30

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In her curiosity she went close to the precipice, when it fell down on her, and, as the milk ran over her, all her ugly blotched skin disappeared, and she was again beautiful as at first.

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**Who acts:** thing, precipice, ugly blotched skin · **What happens:** go, fall down, run, blotch, disappear, be · **To what, where:** curiosity

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, precipice, ugly blotched skin), 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:pg71335:7:30
# text = In her curiosity she went close to the precipice, when it fell down on her, and, as the milk ran over her, all her ugly blotched skin disappeared, and she was again beautiful as at first.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	precipice	precipice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
23	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
24	over	over	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	32	det:predet	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
29	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	blotched	blotch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	amod	_	_
31	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
37	again	again	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
39	as	as	ADP	IN	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	39	fixed	_	_
41	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	39	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | thing |  |  | thing's curiosity |  | close *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in curiosity=Location |
| 2 | **fall down** | past | precipice |  |  |  |  | on thing; down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on she=Location |
| 3 | **run** | past |  |  |  |  |  | as the milk; over thing | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over she=Trajectory |
| 4 | **blotch** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **disappear** | past | thing's ugly blotched skin |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past | thing |  |  |  | again | beautiful *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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