Ojibwa myths and tales, Killing the Old People., sentence 7
The old woman was left on a river bank, and it happened that one of the boys was out hunting that way and when he was coming back home he saw his grandmother sitting by the river side.
Who acts: it, one, John, grandmother · What happens: leave, happen, hunt, come back, see, sit · To what, where: old woman, river bank, way, grandmother
This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Killing the Old People.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, one, John, grandmother), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 woman | det |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 woman | amod |
| 3 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 left | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 left | aux:pass |
| 5 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | on | on | ADP | _ | 9 bank | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 bank | det |
| 8 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 bank | compound |
| 9 | bank | bank | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 left | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 happened | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 happened | cc |
| 12 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 happened | nsubj |
| 13 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 left | conj |
| 14 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 21 hunting | mark |
| 15 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 21 hunting | nsubj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 boys | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 boys | det |
| 18 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 one | nmod |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 hunting | aux |
| 20 | out | out | ADP | _ | 19 was | compound:prt |
| 21 | hunting | hunt | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 happened | advcl |
| 22 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 23 way | det |
| 23 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 hunting | obl:unmarked |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 coming | cc |
| 25 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 28 coming | advmod |
| 26 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 coming | nsubj |
| 27 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 coming | aux |
| 28 | coming | come | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 21 hunting | conj |
| 29 | back | back | ADV | _ | 28 coming | advmod |
| 30 | home | home | ADV | _ | 28 coming | advmod |
| 31 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 saw | nsubj |
| 32 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 coming | ccomp |
| 33 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 34 grandmother | nmod:poss |
| 34 | grandmother | grandmother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 saw | obj |
| 35 | sitting | sit | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 34 grandmother | acl |
| 36 | by | by | ADP | _ | 39 side | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 side | det |
| 38 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 side | compound |
| 39 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 sitting | obl |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 left | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | past · passive | the old woman | a river bank | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme on bank=Location | ||||
| 2 | happen | past | it | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | hunt | past · progressive | one of the boys | that way | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | come back | past · progressive | John | home property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | see | past | John | John's grandmother | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer grandmother=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | sit | gerund | John's grandmother not said here | by the river side | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by side=Location |
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/pg76755/20/7/