---
title: By and by they began to grow pin-feathers and get big. — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: By and by they began to grow pin-feathers and get big. Who acts: birds. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Thunderbirds. (no. 1.), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/4/6/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ojibwa myths and tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/) / [Thunderbirds. (no. 1.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/4/) / 6

# Ojibwa myths and tales, Thunderbirds. (no. 1.), sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By and by they began to grow pin-feathers and get big.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** birds · **What happens:** begin, grow, get · **To what, where:** pin feathers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Thunderbirds. (no. 1.). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76755:4:6
# text = By and by they began to grow pin-feathers and get big.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	pin	pin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **grow** | to-infinitive | birds *= bird* *not said here* | pin feathers |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location feather=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | present | birds *= bird* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | big *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/4/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/4/7/)
- ↑ back to [Thunderbirds. (no. 1.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/4/)