---
title: As they have no written language, their legends may change a little;… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: As they have no written language, their legends may change a little; the same story may be told in different ways, and the words they use may have various forms. Who acts: stories, legends, words. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Introductory—indi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/25/15/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / [Introductory—indian Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/25/) / 15

# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Introductory—indian Stories, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As they have no written language, their legends may change a little; the same story may be told in different ways, and the words they use may have various forms.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stories, legends, words · **What happens:** have, write, change, tell, use · **To what, where:** written language, little, same story, different ways, words, various forms · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Introductory—indian Stories. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stories, legends, words), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg73136:25:15
# text = As they have no written language, their legends may change a little; the same story may be told in different ways, and the words they use may have various forms.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
5	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
6	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	parataxis	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
30	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
32	various	various	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	forms	form	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | stories *= story* | no written language |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Patient |
| 2 | **write** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **change** | may | stories's legends | a little |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Patient |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | may · passive |  | the same story |  | different ways |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 5 | **use** | present | stories *= story* | the words *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient |
| 6 | **have** | may | the words | various forms |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/25/14/)
- next →: [I. Iagoo, the Great Story-te…, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/26/1/)
- ↑ back to [Introductory—indian Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/25/)