---
title: He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big an… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big ant dragging a rabbit to its hole in the trail. Who acts: Iagoo, beast, big ant. 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 
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller, sentence 65

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He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big ant dragging a rabbit to its hole in the trail.

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**Who acts:** Iagoo, beast, big ant · **What happens:** raise, strike, be, drag · **To what, where:** war club, beast, nothing, rabbit, hole

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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, beast, big ant), 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:pg73136:26:65
# text = He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big ant dragging a rabbit to its hole in the trail.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	parataxis	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
18	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	trail	trail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **raise** | past | Iagoo | Iagoo's war club |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent club=Theme |
| 2 | **strike** | to-infinitive | Iagoo *not said here* | beast |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | past | beast | nothing |  |  |  | a big ant *conj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **drag** | gerund | a big ant *not said here* | a rabbit |  | beast's hole in the trail |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme to hole=Destination |

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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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