---
title: He saw some big fish and then went home and told his people that he… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He saw some big fish and then went home and told his people that he saw a lot of fish. Who acts: fish. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The People Who Became Serpents., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, The People Who Became Serpents., sentence 13

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He saw some big fish and then went home and told his people that he saw a lot of fish.

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**Who acts:** fish · **What happens:** see, go, tell · **To what, where:** big fish, people, lot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The People Who Became Serpents.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fish), 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:pg76755:27:13
# text = He saw some big fish and then went home and told his people that he saw a lot of fish.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
4	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	home	home	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	2	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	iobj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | fish | some big fish |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer fish=Stimulus |
| 2 | **go** | past | fish *not said here* |  |  |  | then | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | fish *not said here* |  | fish's people |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent people=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **see** | past | fish | a lot of fish |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lot=Stimulus |

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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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