---
title: He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he could not tell the trees from the mosquitoes, they were both so big. Who acts: Iagoo, mosquitoes. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller, with its depen
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller, sentence 41

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He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he could not tell the trees from the mosquitoes, they were both so big.

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**Who acts:** Iagoo, mosquitoes · **What happens:** see, fly, not tell, be · **To what, where:** mosquitoes, tamarack trees, trees · **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 (Iagoo, mosquitoes), 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:pg73136:26:41
# text = He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he could not tell the trees from the mosquitoes, they were both so big.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	tamarack	tamarack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	swamp	swamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	both	both	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Iagoo | mosquitoes |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mosquito=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | mosquitoes *not said here* |  |  | the tamarack trees in the swamp |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in tree=Location |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | Iagoo | the trees |  |  |  | from the mosquitoes | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tree=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | mosquitoes *= mosquito* |  |  |  |  | big, both *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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