---
title: The white man asked him where did he come from. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The white man asked him where did he come from. Who acts: white man, younger. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Indian Boy Who Married a King’s Daughter., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, The Indian Boy Who Married a King’s Daughter., sentence 30

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The white man asked him where did he come from.

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**Who acts:** white man, younger · **What happens:** ask, come · **To what, where:** younger

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Indian Boy Who Married a King’s Daughter.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white man, younger), 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:pg76755:28:30
# text = The white man asked him where did he come from.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	9	advmod	_	_
7	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the white man |  | younger *= young* |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** *not said to happen* | past · do-support | younger *= young* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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