Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush. (no. 6.), sentence 2

It was never known how Nanabush was born, only that he was working for God for many years (York says 2,000 years, which is evidently his expression to denote a very long time) looking after the world, such as to regulate the weather, rain, snow, and other things.

Who acts: Nanabush, York, 2,000 years · What happens: not know, bear, work, say, be, denote · To what, where: It, Nanabush, expression, weather · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush. (no. 6.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nanabush, York, 2,000 years), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 known	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 known	aux:pass
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 known	advmod
4	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	8 born	advmod
6	Nanabush	Nanabush	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 born	nsubj:pass
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 born	aux:pass
8	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 known	xcomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 working	punct
10	only	only	ADV	_	14 working	advmod
11	that	that	SCONJ	_	14 working	mark
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 working	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 working	aux
14	working	work	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 born	conj
15	for	for	ADP	_	16 God	case
16	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 working	obl
17	for	for	ADP	_	19 years	case
18	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 years	amod
19	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 working	obl
20	(	(	PUNCT	_	22 says	punct
21	York	York	PROPN	Number=Sing	22 says	nsubj
22	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 known	conj
23	2,000	2000	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	24 years	nummod
24	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 says	obj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 expression	punct
26	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	30 expression	nsubj
27	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 expression	cop
28	evidently	evidently	ADV	_	30 expression	advmod
29	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	30 expression	nmod:poss
30	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 years	nmod
31	to	to	PART	_	32 denote	mark
32	denote	denote	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 expression	acl
33	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	36 time	det
34	very	very	ADV	_	35 long	advmod
35	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 time	amod
36	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 denote	obj
37	)	)	PUNCT	_	22 says	punct
38	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	22 says	advcl
39	after	after	ADP	_	41 world	case
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 world	det
41	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 looking	obl
42	,	,	PUNCT	_	56 things	punct
43	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	56 things	amod
44	as	as	ADP	_	43 such	fixed
45	to	to	PART	_	46 regulate	mark
46	regulate	regulate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 such	advcl
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 weather	det
48	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 regulate	obj
49	,	,	PUNCT	_	50 rain	punct
50	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 weather	conj
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	52 snow	punct
52	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 weather	conj
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	56 things	punct
54	and	and	CCONJ	_	56 things	cc
55	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	56 things	amod
56	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	41 world	conj
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 known	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	not know	past · passive		It			tree rules
2	bear	past · passive		Nanabush			vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
3	work	past · progressive	Nanabush		year	for God	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for god=Beneficiary
4	say speech: assert	present	York		year		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	is a	present	2,000 years	York's expression		York nmod:poss; evidently property	tree rules
6	denote	to-infinitive	York not said here		time		vn indicate-78 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
7	look	gerund	York not said here		after the world and such other things		vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
8	regulate	to-infinitive	York not said here	the weather and rain and snow			tree rules

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/pg76755/22/2/

🌲 Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush. (no. 6.), sentence 2

The tree

Pragmatics

Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush. (no. 6.), sentence 2