---
title: One time while two families, one of which had an old woman, were out… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: One time while two families, one of which had an old woman, were out camping, they decided to kill the old woman. Who acts: families. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/20/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ojibwa myths and tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/) / [Killing the Old People.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/20/) / 3

# Ojibwa myths and tales, Killing the Old People., sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One time while two families, one of which had an old woman, were out camping, they decided to kill the old woman.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** families · **What happens:** have, camp, decide, kill · **To what, where:** old woman

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (families), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76755:20:3
# text = One time while two families, one of which had an old woman, were out camping, they decided to kill the old woman.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	appos	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	camping	camp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  | a old woman |  |  |  | which *nsubj* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Patient |
| 2 | **camp** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn odge-46-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **decide** | past | families *= family* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | families *= family* *not said here* | the old woman |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/20/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/20/4/)
- ↑ back to [Killing the Old People.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/20/)