---
title: By dropping the a before tánka, we have changed the name to _Big Wat… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: By dropping the a before tánka, we have changed the name to _Big Water_. Who acts: we. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 2, sentence 73

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By dropping the a before tánka, we have changed the name to \_Big Water\_.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** drop, change · **To what, where:** a, name, Big

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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 (we), 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:pg8122:19:73
# text = By dropping the a before tánka, we have changed the name to _Big Water_.
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	reparandum	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	obj	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	tánka	tánka	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Big	Big	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	Water	Water	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drop** | gerund | we *not said here* | a |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent a=Theme tánka=Destination |
| 2 | **change** | present · perfect | we | the name | Big |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Patient |

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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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