---
title: He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the light… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning. Who acts: Butterfly, white moccasins. 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 24

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He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.

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**Who acts:** Butterfly, white moccasins · **What happens:** step, fasten · **To what, where:** these

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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, white moccasins), 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:pg73136:23:24
# text = He stepped upon these, and his white moccasins fastened to the lightning.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	moccasins	moccasin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step** | past | Butterfly |  |  | these |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon this=Trajectory |
| 2 | **fasten** | past | Butterfly's white moccasins |  |  |  |  | to the lightning | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to lightning=Co-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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