---
title: It was about two fingers broad, and about one hand long. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was about two fingers broad, and about one hand long. Who acts: lightning. 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 20

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It was about two fingers broad, and about one hand long.

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**Who acts:** lightning · **What happens:** be

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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 (lightning), 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:pg76755:30:20
# text = It was about two fingers broad, and about one hand long.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	about	about	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
12	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | lightning |  |  |  |  | two fingers *obl:unmarked*; one hand *conj*; broad *property* | tree rules |

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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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