---
title: The voice replied: “I am Simbukumbukwana.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The voice replied: “I am Simbukumbukwana.” Who acts: voice. 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 21

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The voice replied: “I am Simbukumbukwana.”

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**Who acts:** voice · **What happens:** reply, be · **To what, where:** Simbukumbukwana · **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 (voice), 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:pg71335:8:21
# text = The voice replied: “I am Simbukumbukwana.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	Simbukumbukwana	Simbukumbukwana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the voice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the voice *= voice* | Simbukumbukwana |  |  |  |  | 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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- ← previous: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/22/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Simbukumbukwana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/)