---
title: 1669, writing to his Superior, thus describes the Dakotas: "The Nado… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: 1669, writing to his Superior, thus describes the Dakotas: "The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, beyond La Pointe, _but less faithless, and never attack till attacked. Who acts: Dakotas. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 5,
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 5, sentence 33

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1669, writing to his Superior, thus describes the Dakotas: "The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, beyond La Pointe, \_but less faithless, and never attack till attacked.

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**Who acts:** Dakotas · **What happens:** write, describe, be, not attack, attack · **To what, where:** Superior, Iroquois, 1669 · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, 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 (Dakotas), 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:pg8122:22:33
# text = 1669, writing to his Superior, thus describes the Dakotas: "The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, beyond La Pointe, _but less faithless, and never attack till attacked.
1	1669	1669	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	writing	write	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	Superior	Superior	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	describes	describe	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Dakotas	dakota	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Nadouessi	Nadouessi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Iroquois	Iroquois	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	La	La	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
25	Pointe	Pointe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
27	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	30	advmod	_	_
30	faithless	faithless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	attack	attack	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
35	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
36	attacked	attack	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | gerund |  |  | Marquette's Superior |  |  |  | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V PP.recipient PP.topic»: agent=Agent to superior=Recipient |
| 2 | **describe** | present |  |  |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the Dakotas  the Nadouessi | the Iroquois |  |  |  | of this country; La *appos* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **attack** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **attack** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «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:** «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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