---
title: The man went home and selected a calf without horns or tail, which h… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The man went home and selected a calf without horns or tail, which he took to the wise woman. Who acts: man, horns. 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 4

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The man went home and selected a calf without horns or tail, which he took to the wise woman.

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**Who acts:** man, horns · **What happens:** go, select, take · **To what, where:** calf

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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, horns), 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:pg71335:8:4
# text = The man went home and selected a calf without horns or tail, which he took to the wise woman.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	home	home	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	selected	select	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	calf	calf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	without	without	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the man |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **select** | past | the man *not said here* | a calf |  |  |  | without horns or tail | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent calf=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past | horns or tail |  |  |  |  | to the wise woman *result*; man *nsubj* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to woman=Result |

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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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