---
title: The Rat wanted to trade tails, very badly, but the Beaver didn’t car… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Rat wanted to trade tails, very badly, but the Beaver didn’t care enough about trading, but at last he traded. Who acts: Rat, Beaver. 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 3

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The Rat wanted to trade tails, very badly, but the Beaver didn’t care enough about trading, but at last he traded.

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**Who acts:** Rat, Beaver · **What happens:** want, trade, not care · **To what, where:** tails, enough, last

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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, Beaver), 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:pg76755:6:3
# text = The Rat wanted to trade tails, very badly, but the Beaver didn’t care enough about trading, but at last he traded.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	trade	trade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Beaver	Beaver	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
17	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obj	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	trading	trading	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	traded	trade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the Rat |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **trade** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Rat *not said here* | tails |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **care** | past · do-support | the Beaver | enough about trading |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **trade** | past | Rat |  |  | last |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: 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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