---
title: These little men set the lightning at the trees and make the thunder. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: These little men set the lightning at the trees and make the thunder. Who acts: little men. 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 40

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These little men set the lightning at the trees and make the thunder.

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**Who acts:** little men · **What happens:** set, make · **To what, where:** lightning, trees, thunder

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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 (little men), 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:pg76755:30:40
# text = These little men set the lightning at the trees and make the thunder.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past | this little men | the lightning |  | the trees |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent lightning=Theme at tree=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | infinitive | this little men *not said here* | the thunder |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset thunder=Product |

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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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