---
title: This story was told to Wash-a-ghe-zik by his father, and was told to… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: This story was told to Wash-a-ghe-zik by his father, and was told to his father by his grandfather. Who acts: story, grandfather. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Creation of Man., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, The Creation of Man., sentence 16

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This story was told to Wash-a-ghe-zik by his father, and was told to his father by his grandfather.

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**Who acts:** story, grandfather · **What happens:** tell, wash · **To what, where:** story, ghe zik, father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, The Creation of Man.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (story, grandfather), 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:pg76755:30:16
# text = This story was told to Wash-a-ghe-zik by his father, and was told to his father by his grandfather.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	Wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	ghe	ghe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	zik	zik	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
13	by	by	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	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | this story |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **wash** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | this story *not said here* | a ghe zik |  |  |  | by man's father | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent zik=Patient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive | man's grandfather |  | man's father |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to father=Recipient |

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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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