---
title: Once, a long time ago, before the white man came to Canada, an India… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once, a long time ago, before the white man came to Canada, an Indian struck out through the bush to hunt. Who acts: white man. 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 33

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Once, a long time ago, before the white man came to Canada, an Indian struck out through the bush to hunt.

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**Who acts:** white man · **What happens:** come, strike out, hunt · **To what, where:** Canada

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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 (white man), 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:pg76755:30:33
# text = Once, a long time ago, before the white man came to Canada, an Indian struck out through the bush to hunt.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Canada	Canada	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
17	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
18	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	hunt	hunt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the white man |  |  | Canada |  | ago, once *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to canada=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **strike out** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hunt** | to-infinitive | the white man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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