Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.), sentence 2
A good many years ago four Indians wanted to know something about “how to be a man that would know how to fight and never get hurt.”
Who acts: four Indians, man · What happens: want, know, be, fight, not hurt · To what, where: something, man · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (four Indians, man), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 years | det |
| 2 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 years | amod |
| 3 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 years | amod |
| 4 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 wanted | obl:unmarked |
| 5 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 8 wanted | advmod |
| 6 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 7 Indians | nummod |
| 7 | Indians | Indian | PROPN | Number=Plur | 8 wanted | nsubj |
| 8 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 know | mark |
| 10 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 wanted | xcomp |
| 11 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 10 know | obj |
| 12 | about | about | SCONJ | _ | 21 know | mark |
| 13 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 21 know | punct |
| 14 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 21 know | advmod |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 man | mark |
| 16 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 18 man | cop |
| 17 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 18 man | det |
| 18 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 know | nsubj |
| 19 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 21 know | nsubj |
| 20 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 know | aux |
| 21 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 something | acl |
| 22 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 24 fight | advmod |
| 23 | to | to | PART | _ | 24 fight | mark |
| 24 | fight | fight | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 know | xcomp |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 hurt | cc |
| 26 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 28 hurt | advmod |
| 27 | get | get | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 28 hurt | aux:pass |
| 28 | hurt | hurt | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 24 fight | conj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 wanted | punct |
| 30 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 wanted | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | want | past | four Indians | year | ago property | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||
| 2 | know not said to happen | to-infinitive | four Indians not said here | something | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer something=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | is a in a quote | to-infinitive | a man | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | know in a quote | would | a man | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 5 | fight in a quote | to-infinitive | a man not said here | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | not hurt in a quote | infinitive · passive | a man not said here | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
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: «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Project Gutenberg book 76755 (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/pg76755/17/2/