---
title: The “something” was shiny and quivering, and nobody knew what it was… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The “something” was shiny and quivering, and nobody knew what it was made out of. Who acts: something, nobody. 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 29

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The “something” was shiny and quivering, and nobody knew what it was made out of.

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**Who acts:** something, nobody · **What happens:** be, quiver, know, make out · **To what, where:** name

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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 (something, nobody), 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:pg76755:30:29
# text = The “something” was shiny and quivering, and nobody knew what it was made out of.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	shiny	shiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	quivering	quiver	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	nsubj	_	_
12	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	obj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	IN	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	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 | something |  |  |  |  | shiny *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **quiver** | gerund | something *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **know** | past | nobody |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **make out** | past · passive |  | name |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |

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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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