---
title: The people who were pursuing him had to swim for their lives. — Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin… · tree and pragmatics
description: The people who were pursuing him had to swim for their lives. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck, Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/14/187/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/) / [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Oj…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/14/) / 187

# Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa, Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 4, sentence 187

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The people who were pursuing him had to swim for their lives.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** pursue, have, swim · **To what, where:** Ciŋgibis

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck, Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66509:14:187
# text = The people who were pursuing him had to swim for their lives.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	pursuing	pursue	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pursue** | past · progressive | the people | Ciŋgibis |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | the people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **swim** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for people's lives | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 186](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/14/186/)
- next →: [sentence 188](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/14/188/)
- ↑ back to [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/14/)