---
title: One time a man had a very small, little dog. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: One time a man had a very small, little dog. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Little Dog Story., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, The Little Dog Story., sentence 3

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One time a man had a very small, little dog.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** have · **To what, where:** small little dog

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Little Dog Story.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg76755:19:3
# text = One time a man had a very small, little dog.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a man | a small little dog |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=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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