---
title: “Can you talk English?” said Lynx. — Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin… · tree and pragmatics
description: “Can you talk English?” said Lynx. Who acts: you, Lynx. 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, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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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 52

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“Can you talk English?” said Lynx.

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**Who acts:** you, Lynx · **What happens:** talk, say · **To what, where:** English · **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 (you, Lynx), 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:pg66509:17:52
# text = “Can you talk English?” said Lynx.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
5	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Lynx	Lynx	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** *in a quote* | can | you | English |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent english=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Lynx |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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