---
title: When he got them all fixed he lay down and told his anus to watch. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When he got them all fixed he lay down and told his anus to watch. 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 36

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When he got them all fixed he lay down and told his anus to watch.

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**Who acts:** Nanabush, ducks · **What happens:** get, fix, lie down, tell, watch · **To what, where:** anus · **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:pg76755:25:36
# text = When he got them all fixed he lay down and told his anus to watch.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	all	all	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	fixed	fix	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
9	down	down	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	anus	anus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	iobj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | Nanabush |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **fix** | past | ducks *= duck* |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **lie down** | past | Nanabush |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Nanabush *not said here* |  | Nanabush's anus |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent anus=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **watch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Nanabush *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |

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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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