---
title: This old man was the man who sang at the dance so he started the dan… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: This old man was the man who sang at the dance so he started the dance a little after dark. Who acts: old man, man. 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 35

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This old man was the man who sang at the dance so he started the dance a little after dark.

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**Who acts:** old man, man · **What happens:** be, sing, start · **To what, where:** man, dance

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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 (old man, man), 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:pg76755:18:35
# text = This old man was the man who sang at the dance so he started the dance a little after dark.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	after	after	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this old man | the man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the man |  |  | the dance |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at dance=Location |
| 3 | **start** | past | the man | the dance |  |  | after dark | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dance=Eventuality |

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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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