---
title: (In those days skunks were as big as a big Porcupine.) — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: (In those days skunks were as big as a big Porcupine.) Who acts: skunks. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush. (no. 6.), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush. (no. 6.), sentence 9

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(In those days skunks were as big as a big Porcupine.)

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**Who acts:** skunks · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** days

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush. (no. 6.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (skunks), 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:pg76755:22:9
# text = (In those days skunks were as big as a big Porcupine.)
1	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	skunks	skunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	as	as	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | skunks | that days *not said here* |  |  |  | as a big Porcupine; big *property* | tree rules |

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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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