---
title: He twisted around and looked at the little trees which were red with… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He twisted around and looked at the little trees which were red with his blood and said, “In future people will call those trees red willows.” Who acts: Nanabush, little trees. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.), with its dependency tree and t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/25/42/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ojibwa myths and tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/) / [Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/25/) / 42

# Ojibwa myths and tales, Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.), sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He twisted around and looked at the little trees which were red with his blood and said, “In future people will call those trees red willows.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nanabush, little trees · **What happens:** twist around, look, be, say, call · **To what, where:** trees · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, little trees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76755:25:42
# text = He twisted around and looked at the little trees which were red with his blood and said, “In future people will call those trees red willows.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	twisted	twist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	around	around	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	In	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
25	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	willows	willow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **twist around** | past | Nanabush |  |  |  |  | around *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | past | Nanabush *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the little trees | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tree=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the little trees |  |  |  |  | with Nanabush's blood; red *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nanabush *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **call** *in a quote* | future |  | that trees |  |  |  | in future people; red willows *obj* | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme willow=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/25/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/25/43/)
- ↑ back to [Nanabush and the Ducks. (no. 8.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/25/)