---
title: While those men were watching the girl one of them thought, “I could… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: While those men were watching the girl one of them thought, “I could eat all that in the pot with one spoonful.” Who acts: men, I. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.), sentence 11

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While those men were watching the girl one of them thought, “I could eat all that in the pot with one spoonful.”

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**Who acts:** men, I · **What happens:** watch, think, eat · **To what, where:** girl, that, pot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, I), 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:pg76755:17:11
# text = While those men were watching the girl one of them thought, “I could eat all that in the pot with one spoonful.”
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	flat	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	spoonful	spoonful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past · progressive | that men | the girl |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **eat** *in a quote* | could | I | that |  | the pot with one spoonful |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=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:** «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.

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