---
title: They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit. Who acts: men, evil spirit. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Medicine Men Among the Indians, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Medicine Men Among the Indians, sentence 6

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They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit.

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**Who acts:** men, evil spirit · **What happens:** believe, teach, cause · **To what, where:** sickness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Medicine Men Among the Indians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, evil spirit), 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:pg73136:12:6
# text = They believe and teach that sickness is caused by an evil spirit.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	believe	believe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	teach	teach	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	sickness	sickness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	caused	cause	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | present | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* | present | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **cause** | present · passive | a evil spirit | sickness |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition subject=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:** «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Project Gutenberg book 73136 (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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