---
title: They were very much afraid, and did not know what to do at first. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They were very much afraid, and did not know what to do at first. Who acts: companions. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 5

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They were very much afraid, and did not know what to do at first.

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**Who acts:** companions · **What happens:** be, not know, do · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (companions), 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:pg71335:7:5
# text = They were very much afraid, and did not know what to do at first.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	know	know	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | companions *= companion* |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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