---
title: It is not an easy matter to get them to tell their legends about tre… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: It is not an easy matter to get them to tell their legends about trees, rocks, or living creatures. Who acts: It, Indians. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Introductory—indian Stories, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Introductory—indian Stories, sentence 4

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It is not an easy matter to get them to tell their legends about trees, rocks, or living creatures.

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**Who acts:** It, Indians · **What happens:** not be, get, tell, live · **To what, where:** easy matter, Indians, legends, creatures · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (It, Indians), 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:pg73136:25:4
# text = It is not an easy matter to get them to tell their legends about trees, rocks, or living creatures.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
21	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | It | a easy matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive |  | Indians *= indian* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Indians *= indian* *not said here* | Indians's legends and rocks |  |  |  | about trees | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent legend=Recipient about tree=Topic |
| 4 | **live** | gerund | Indians *= indian* *not said here* | creatures |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme creature=Location |

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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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