---
title: A long time ago the Rat had the Beaver’s tail, and the Beaver the Ra… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A long time ago the Rat had the Beaver’s tail, and the Beaver the Rat’s tail. Who acts: Rat. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Rat and Beaver Story—wah-zesk and Ah-mic., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Rat and Beaver Story—wah-zesk and Ah-mic., sentence 2

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A long time ago the Rat had the Beaver’s tail, and the Beaver the Rat’s tail.

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**Who acts:** Rat · **What happens:** have · **To what, where:** tail

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Rat and Beaver Story—wah-zesk and Ah-mic.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rat), 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:pg76755:6:2
# text = A long time ago the Rat had the Beaver’s tail, and the Beaver the Rat’s tail.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Beaver	Beaver	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Beaver	Beaver	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
19	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the Rat | the Beaver's tail |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |

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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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