---
title: “The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: “The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness. Who acts: priests. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, How the Cave People Found Dry Land on the Earth, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, How the Cave People Found Dry Land on the Earth, sentence 21

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“The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness.

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**Who acts:** priests · **What happens:** pray

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, How the Cave People Found Dry Land on the Earth. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (priests), 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:pg73136:24:21
# text = “The priests prayed to the Sun-children for help in the darkness.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	priests	priest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pray** *in a quote* | past | the priests |  |  |  |  | to the Sun children; for help in the darkness | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for help=Theme |

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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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