---
title: He placed his wife to watch for the beaver and she sat on a rock wat… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He placed his wife to watch for the beaver and she sat on a rock watching for the beaver to come out. Who acts: Nanabush, beaver. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and His Wife’s Chair. (no. 7.), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush and His Wife’s Chair. (no. 7.), sentence 3

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He placed his wife to watch for the beaver and she sat on a rock watching for the beaver to come out.

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**Who acts:** Nanabush, beaver · **What happens:** place, watch, sit, come out · **To what, where:** wife, rock

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and His Wife’s Chair. (no. 7.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nanabush, beaver), 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:pg76755:23:3
# text = He placed his wife to watch for the beaver and she sat on a rock watching for the beaver to come out.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
22	out	out	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past | Nanabush | Nanabush's wife |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent wife=Theme |
| 2 | **watch** | to-infinitive | Nanabush *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the beaver | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for beaver=Theme |
| 3 | **sit** | past | beaver |  |  | a rock |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on rock=Location |
| 4 | **watch** | gerund | beaver *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the beaver | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for beaver=Theme |
| 5 | **come out** | to-infinitive | beaver *not said here* |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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