---
title: Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them. Who acts: Men. 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 28

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Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.

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**Who acts:** Men · **What happens:** seek, pray, find, help · **To what, where:** priests, way

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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 (Men), 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:pg73136:24:28
# text = Men sought the priests and prayed them to find some way to help them.
1	Men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	priests	priest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
10	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	det	_	_
11	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past | Men | the priests |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent priest=Theme |
| 2 | **pray** | past | Men *not said here* | priests *= priest* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive | Men *not said here* | some way |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic |
| 4 | **help** | to-infinitive | Men *not said here* | priests *= priest* |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |

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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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