---
title: But he frightened his mother by his sight; He could tell her what wa… — Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems · tree and pragmatics
description: But he frightened his mother by his sight; He could tell her what was coming: What was coming from afar, What was near he could not see. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems, Opening, part 18, sentence 9

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But he frightened his mother by his sight; He could tell her what was coming: What was coming from afar, What was near he could not see.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** frighten, tell, come, not be, sight · **To what, where:** mother, woman, afar · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg78673:18:9
# text = But he frightened his mother by his sight; He could tell her what was coming: What was coming from afar, What was near he could not see.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	afar	afar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
26	near	near	ADP	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | past | man | man's mother |  |  |  | by man's sight | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus mother=Experiencer |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | man |  | woman |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | past · progressive |  |  |  | afar |  | What *nsubj* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from afar=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **not** **is** | could · past | man |  |  |  |  | What *obj*; see *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **sight** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=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:** «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Project Gutenberg book 78673 (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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