---
title: He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth;… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man. Who acts: Butterfly. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, A Navajo Medicine Chant, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, A Navajo Medicine Chant, sentence 14

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He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.

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**Who acts:** Butterfly · **What happens:** dry, paint, be · **To what, where:** hands, face

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, A Navajo Medicine Chant. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Butterfly), 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:pg73136:23:14
# text = He dried his hands with meal and painted his face with white earth; then he was fair as a white man.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	dried	dry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	painted	paint	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	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 | **dry** | past | Butterfly | Butterfly's hands |  |  |  | with meal | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent hand=Patient with meal=Instrument |
| 2 | **paint** | past | Butterfly *not said here* | Butterfly's face |  |  |  | with white earth | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent face=Destination with earth=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | Butterfly |  |  |  | then | as a white man; fair *property* | 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:** «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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