---
title: The Mohawks were so bad that they used to kill for nothing. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Mohawks were so bad that they used to kill for nothing. Who acts: Mohawks. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Ojibwa and Mohawk. (no. 5.), 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/pg76755/21/2/)

<!-- 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/) / [Ojibwa and Mohawk. (no. 5.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/21/) / 2

# Ojibwa myths and tales, Ojibwa and Mohawk. (no. 5.), sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Mohawks were so bad that they used to kill for nothing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mohawks · **What happens:** be, use, kill

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Ojibwa and Mohawk. (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 (Mohawks), 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:pg76755:21:2
# text = The Mohawks were so bad that they used to kill for nothing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Mohawks	mohawk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Mohawks |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | past | Mohawks *= mohawk* |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **kill** | to-infinitive | Mohawks *= mohawk* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for nothing | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/21/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/21/3/)
- ↑ back to [Ojibwa and Mohawk. (no. 5.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/21/)