Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa, Wiske·djak Cycle., part 3, sentence 55
In a few months, when his wife’s brothers were out on the lake in their canoe, they spied a little duck swimming a long way off, and paddled up to him.
Who acts: brothers, little duck · What happens: be, spy, swim, paddle up · To what, where: lake, little duck, long way, hole
This is a sentence of «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck, Wiske·djak Cycle., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, little duck), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | In | in | ADP | _ | 4 months | case |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 months | det |
| 3 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 months | amod |
| 4 | months | month | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 spied | obl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 lake | punct |
| 6 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 15 lake | advmod |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 wife | nmod:poss |
| 8 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 brothers | nmod:poss |
| 9 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 8 wife | case |
| 10 | brothers | brother | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 lake | nsubj |
| 11 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 lake | cop |
| 12 | out | out | ADP | _ | 11 were | compound:prt |
| 13 | on | on | ADP | _ | 15 lake | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 lake | det |
| 15 | lake | lake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 months | appos |
| 16 | in | in | ADP | _ | 18 canoe | case |
| 17 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 canoe | nmod:poss |
| 18 | canoe | canoe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 lake | nmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 months | punct |
| 20 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 spied | nsubj |
| 21 | spied | spy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 duck | det |
| 23 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 duck | amod |
| 24 | duck | duck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 spied | obj |
| 25 | swimming | swim | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 24 duck | acl |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 28 way | det |
| 27 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 way | amod |
| 28 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 swimming | obl |
| 29 | off | off | ADV | _ | 28 way | advmod |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 paddled | punct |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 paddled | cc |
| 32 | paddled | paddle | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 21 spied | conj |
| 33 | up | up | ADP | _ | 32 paddled | compound:prt |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 35 him | case |
| 35 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 paddled | obl |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 21 spied | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | hole's wife's brothers | the lake | in brothers's canoe | tree rules | |||
| 2 | spy | past | brothers = brother | a little duck | month | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer duck=Stimulus | |||
| 3 | swim | gerund | a little duck not said here | a long way | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | paddle up | participle | brothers = brother not said here | hole | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent to he=Trajectory |
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.
Text: «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck, Project Gutenberg book 66509 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/7/55/