---
title: He beat his wife, and commanded her to take the child away and leave… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He beat his wife, and commanded her to take the child away and leave it to perish. Who acts: man, calf. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., sentence 10

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He beat his wife, and commanded her to take the child away and leave it to perish.

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**Who acts:** man, calf · **What happens:** beat, command, take away, leave, perish · **To what, where:** wife, child, calf · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Simbukumbukwana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, calf), 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:pg71335:8:10
# text = He beat his wife, and commanded her to take the child away and leave it to perish.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beat** | past | man | man's wife |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wife=Theme |
| 2 | **command** | past | man *not said here* | wife |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take away** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | the child |  |  |  | away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme |
| 4 | **leave** | infinitive | man *not said here* | calf |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **perish** | to-infinitive | calf *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

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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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