---
title: Her father wandered about in the mist a long time, till at length it… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Her father wandered about in the mist a long time, till at length it cleared away. Who acts: father, mist. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume., 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/pg71335/9/140/)

<!-- 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 Sikulume.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/) / 140

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 140

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Her father wandered about in the mist a long time, till at length it cleared away.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, mist · **What happens:** wander, clear away · **To what, where:** mist, length

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, mist), 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:pg71335:9:140
# text = Her father wandered about in the mist a long time, till at length it cleared away.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wandered	wander	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	mist	mist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	till	till	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	cleared	clear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	away	away	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wander** | past | girl's father |  |  | the mist | time | length *parataxis*; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in mist=Trajectory |
| 2 | **clear away** | past | mist | length *not said here* |  |  |  | away *property* | vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent length=Source |

<!-- .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 139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/139/)
- next →: [sentence 141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/141/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Sikulume.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/)