---
title: The old man wanted the boy to sit in front but the boy chose to sit… — Ojibwa myths and tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man wanted the boy to sit in front but the boy chose to sit behind. Who acts: old man, boy. A sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Ne-we-no-nah K’she Mŭh., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ojibwa myths and tales, Ne-we-no-nah K’she Mŭh., sentence 35

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The old man wanted the boy to sit in front but the boy chose to sit behind.

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**Who acts:** old man, boy · **What happens:** want, sit, choose · **To what, where:** boy, front

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This is a sentence of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw, Ne-we-no-nah K’she Mŭh.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, boy), 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:pg76755:7:35
# text = The old man wanted the boy to sit in front but the boy chose to sit behind.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the old man | the boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  |  | front |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 3 | **choose** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sit** | to-infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | behind *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «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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