---
title: He went to sleep and it happened to be that there was a lion close b… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He went to sleep and it happened to be that there was a lion close by who ate all the ducks. Who acts: Nanabush, it. 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 37

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He went to sleep and it happened to be that there was a lion close by who ate all the ducks.

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**Who acts:** Nanabush, it · **What happens:** go, sleep, happen, be, eat · **To what, where:** ducks

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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, it), 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:pg76755:25:37
# text = He went to sleep and it happened to be that there was a lion close by who ate all the ducks.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	advcl	_	_
16	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Nanabush |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | Nanabush *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | a lion *obl:unmarked*; close *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **eat** | past |  | all ducks |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duck=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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