---
title: A good many years ago two families lived on an Island. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A good many years ago two families lived on an Island. Who acts: two families. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Young Man and Wife. (no. 5.), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush and the Young Man and Wife. (no. 5.), sentence 2

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A good many years ago two families lived on an Island.

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**Who acts:** two families · **What happens:** live · **To what, where:** Island

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Young Man and Wife. (no. 5.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two families), 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:pg76755:18:2
# text = A good many years ago two families lived on an Island.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Island	Island	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | two families |  |  | a Island |  | ago *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on island=Location |

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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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