---
title: So nowadays the Indians tell the young boys neither to talk about th… — Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin… · tree and pragmatics
description: So nowadays the Indians tell the young boys neither to talk about the Beavers, nor the prospects of a hunt before attacking a beaver colony, lest the Muskrat hear them and tell the Beaver. Who acts: Indians, Muskrat. A sentence of «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa
---

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# Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa, Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 7, sentence 153

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So nowadays the Indians tell the young boys neither to talk about the Beavers, nor the prospects of a hunt before attacking a beaver colony, lest the Muskrat hear them and tell the Beaver.

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**Who acts:** Indians, Muskrat · **What happens:** tell, talk, attack, hear, prospect · **To what, where:** prospects, young boys, beaver colony, Indians, Beaver, hunt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Indians, Muskrat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66509:17:153
# text = So nowadays the Indians tell the young boys neither to talk about the Beavers, nor the prospects of a hunt before attacking a beaver colony, lest the Muskrat hear them and tell the Beaver.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	nowadays	nowadays	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Indians	Indian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Beavers	Beaver	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	prospects	prospect	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	hunt	hunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	attacking	attack	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	colony	colony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	Muskrat	muskrat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | the Indians | the prospects of a hunt | the young boys |  |  | nowadays *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **talk** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about the Beavers; neither *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about beaver=Topic |
| 3 | **attack** | gerund | the Indians *not said here* | a beaver colony |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colony=Patient |
| 4 | **hear** | infinitive | the Muskrat | Indians *= indian* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | the Muskrat *not said here* |  | the Beaver |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent beaver=Recipient |
| 6 | **prospect** |  |  | a hunt |  |  |  |  | nom prospect «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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.

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**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.

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