---
title: He said: “I want the fire of my father to be here,” and there was a… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said: “I want the fire of my father to be here,” and there was a fire. Who acts: boy, fire. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/65/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Story of Simbukumbukwana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/) / 65

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said: “I want the fire of my father to be here,” and there was a fire.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, fire · **What happens:** say, want, be, fire · **To what, where:** fire, father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (boy, fire), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:8:65
# text = He said: “I want the fire of my father to be here,” and there was a fire.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
14	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **want** *in a quote* | present | boy | the fire of my father |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot fire=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** | past | a fire |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fire** *in a quote* |  |  | my father |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/64/)
- next →: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/66/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Simbukumbukwana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/8/)