---
title: The clam in his shell and the water turtle too, And the brave boatma… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: The clam in his shell and the water turtle too, And the brave boatman's shell is his birch bark canoe. Who acts: shell. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5, sentence 60

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The clam in his shell and the water turtle too, And the brave boatman's shell is his birch bark canoe.

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**Who acts:** shell · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** birch bark canoe, clam

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shell), 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:pg8122:12:61
# text = The clam in his shell and the water turtle too, And the brave boatman's shell is his birch bark canoe.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	clam	clam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
12	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	boatman	boatman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
20	birch	birch	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the brave boatman's shell | Merry's birch bark canoe |  |  |  | Merry *nmod:poss* | tree rules |

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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:** «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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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