---
title: On the way up they could hear Nanabush beating his drum and saying t… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On the way up they could hear Nanabush beating his drum and saying to them, “Come on, my children.” Who acts: Indians, Nanabush. 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 5

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On the way up they could hear Nanabush beating his drum and saying to them, “Come on, my children.”

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**Who acts:** Indians, Nanabush · **What happens:** hear, beat, say, come on · **To what, where:** way, drum, Indians, children · **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 (Indians, Nanabush), 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:pg76755:17:5
# text = On the way up they could hear Nanabush beating his drum and saying to them, “Come on, my children.”
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	Nanabush	Nanabush	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	beating	beat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
19	on	on	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | could | Indians *= indian* |  |  | the way |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **beat** | gerund | Nanabush | Nanabush's drum |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drum=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Nanabush *not said here* |  | Indians *= indian* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 4 | **come on** *in a quote* | infinitive | Nanabush *not said here* | my children |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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.

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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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