---
title: He told the ducks that as soon as they came inside they would have t… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He told the ducks that as soon as they came inside they would have to close their eyes. Who acts: Nanabush, ducks. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.), sentence 28

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He told the ducks that as soon as they came inside they would have to close their eyes.

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**Who acts:** Nanabush, ducks · **What happens:** tell, come, have, close · **To what, where:** ducks, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nanabush, ducks), 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:pg76755:25:28
# text = He told the ducks that as soon as they came inside they would have to close their eyes.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	obj	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
11	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Nanabush |  | the ducks |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent duck=Recipient |
| 2 | **come** | past | ducks *= duck* |  |  |  |  | inside *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | would | ducks *= duck* | the ducks |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **close** | to-infinitive | the ducks *not said here* | ducks's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |

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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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