---
title: The bear was a cub but fought like an old bear, tearing the clothes… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The bear was a cub but fought like an old bear, tearing the clothes off the man. Who acts: bear. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, John York’s Own Story., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, John York’s Own Story., sentence 18

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The bear was a cub but fought like an old bear, tearing the clothes off the man.

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**Who acts:** bear · **What happens:** be, fight, tear · **To what, where:** cub, clothes

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, John York’s Own Story.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bear), 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:pg76755:29:18
# text = The bear was a cub but fought like an old bear, tearing the clothes off the man.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	cub	cub	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	tearing	tear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	13	obj	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the bear | a cub |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fight** | past | the bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a old bear | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tear** | gerund | the bear *not said here* | the clothes |  |  |  | off the man | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent clothes=Patient off man=Co-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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