---
title: The spirit of a Dakota mother whose only child was drowned in the la… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: The spirit of a Dakota mother whose only child was drowned in the lake during a storm, many, many years ago often wails at midnight (so the Dakotas say), on this hill. Who acts: Dakotas. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2, with its d
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/19/104/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends of the Northwest](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/) / [In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/19/) / 104

# Legends of the Northwest, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The spirit of a Dakota mother whose only child was drowned in the lake during a storm, many, many years ago often wails at midnight (so the Dakotas say), on this hill.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dakotas · **What happens:** drown, wail, say · **To what, where:** spirit, lake · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dakotas), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8122:19:104
# text = The spirit of a Dakota mother whose only child was drowned in the lake during a storm, many, many years ago often wails at midnight (so the Dakotas say), on this hill.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Dakota	Dakota	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
7	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	during	during	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
23	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	often	often	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	wails	wail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
28	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Dakotas	dakota	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	det	_	_
37	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drown** | past · passive |  | the spirit of a Dakota mother  a Dakota mother  child's child |  | the lake during a storm and many many years |  | on this hill | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **wail** | present |  |  |  |  | midnight | often *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the Dakotas |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/19/103/)
- next →: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/19/105/)
- ↑ back to [In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/19/)