---
title: He asked the bird if there was an island close by, and the bird said… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He asked the bird if there was an island close by, and the bird said, “Yes, there is a rock not far from here.” Who acts: King, island, bird. 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
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, The Indian Boy Who Married a King’s Daughter., sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He asked the bird if there was an island close by, and the bird said, “Yes, there is a rock not far from here.”

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**Who acts:** King, island, bird · **What happens:** ask, be, say, not be · **To what, where:** bird · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (King, island, bird), 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:pg76755:28:80
# text = He asked the bird if there was an island close by, and the bird said, “Yes, there is a rock not far from here.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	7	expl	_	_
7	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
10	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	22	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	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 | King |  | the bird |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent bird=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a island |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | far *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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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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