---
title: He speared it and killed it, then took it home and cooked it; all th… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He speared it and killed it, then took it home and cooked it; all the family ate of it, and in a very short time they all took sick and died. Who acts: man, family, they. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Tailless Sturgeon., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, The Tailless Sturgeon., sentence 4

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He speared it and killed it, then took it home and cooked it; all the family ate of it, and in a very short time they all took sick and died.

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**Who acts:** man, family, they · **What happens:** spear, kill, take, cook, eat, die · **To what, where:** fish

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Tailless Sturgeon.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, family, they), 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:pg76755:24:4
# text = He speared it and killed it, then took it home and cooked it; all the family ate of it, and in a very short time they all took sick and died.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	speared	spear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
9	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	home	home	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	cooked	cook	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
31	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
32	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spear** | past | man | fish |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 2 | **kill** | past | man *not said here* | fish |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | fish |  |  | then | home *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **cook** | past |  | fish |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **eat** | past | all family |  |  |  |  | of fish | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent of it=Source |
| 6 | **take** | past | they |  |  |  | time | sick *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **die** | past | they *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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