---
title: His name was Sikulume, for he had never been able to speak till he c… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: His name was Sikulume, for he had never been able to speak till he caught the bird. Who acts: name, chief. 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/pg71335/9/30/)

<!-- 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/) / 30

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His name was Sikulume, for he had never been able to speak till he caught the bird.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** name, chief · **What happens:** be, not be, speak, catch, name · **To what, where:** Sikulume, bird · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (name, chief), 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:pg71335:9:30
# text = His name was Sikulume, for he had never been able to speak till he caught the bird.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	Sikulume	Sikulume	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	cop	_	_
11	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | chief's name | Sikulume |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past · perfect | chief |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **catch** | past | chief | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 5 | **name** |  | chief |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/29/)
- next →: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/31/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Sikulume.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/9/)