---
title: In the days gone by when an old man or woman got helpless they used… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the days gone by when an old man or woman got helpless they used to be killed outright. Who acts: old man, man. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Killing the Old People., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Killing the Old People., sentence 2

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In the days gone by when an old man or woman got helpless they used to be killed outright.

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**Who acts:** old man, man · **What happens:** go, get, use, kill

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Killing the Old People.. 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:pg76755:20:2
# text = In the days gone by when an old man or woman got helpless they used to be killed outright.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
4	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
12	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	xcomp	_	_
19	outright	outright	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | participle |  |  |  |  | day |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **get** | past | a old man or woman |  |  |  |  | helpless *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **use** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **kill** | to-infinitive · passive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | outright *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |

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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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