---
title: They were surprised, and said to Simbukumbukwana, “Who did this?” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They were surprised, and said to Simbukumbukwana, “Who did this?” Who acts: father. 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 32

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They were surprised, and said to Simbukumbukwana, “Who did this?”

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** be, say, do · **To what, where:** Simbukumbukwana, this · **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 (father), 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:pg71335:8:32
# text = They were surprised, and said to Simbukumbukwana, “Who did this?”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Simbukumbukwana	Simbukumbukwana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | father |  |  |  |  | surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | Simbukumbukwana |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to simbukumbukwana=Recipient |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | past |  | this |  |  |  | Who *nsubj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=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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