---
title: They knew the pond-lily leaves were small in the lakes; they could n… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: They knew the pond-lily leaves were small in the lakes; they could not be so wide in a river. Who acts: girls, lily leaves. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller, sentence 109

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They knew the pond-lily leaves were small in the lakes; they could not be so wide in a river.

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**Who acts:** girls, lily leaves · **What happens:** know, be, not be · **To what, where:** lakes, river · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, lily leaves), 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:pg73136:26:109
# text = They knew the pond-lily leaves were small in the lakes; they could not be so wide in a river.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	lily	lily	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	lakes	lake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | girls *= girl* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | the lily leaves |  |  | the lakes |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is** | could | girls *= girl* |  |  | a river |  | wide *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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