---
title: He listened for a while, and then he stood up to observe them better. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He listened for a while, and then he stood up to observe them better. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 5

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He listened for a while, and then he stood up to observe them better.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** listen, stand up, observe · **To what, where:** birds

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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 (man), 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:pg71335:9:5
# text = He listened for a while, and then he stood up to observe them better.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	observe	observe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past | man |  |  |  | while |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **stand up** | past | man |  |  |  | then |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **observe** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | birds *= bird* |  |  |  | good *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic |

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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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