---
title: Their eyes were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their ha… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Their eyes were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong. Who acts: eyes, people. 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
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, How the Cave People Found Dry Land on the Earth, sentence 34

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Their eyes were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.

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**Who acts:** eyes, people · **What happens:** be, cover · **To what, where:** eyes

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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 (eyes, people), 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:pg73136:24:34
# text = Their eyes were like owls’ eyes, and they covered them with their hands till they were strong.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	owls	owl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
16	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | people's eyes |  |  |  |  | like owls's eyes | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cover** | past | people | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  | with people's hands | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination with hand=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | people |  |  |  |  | strong *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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