---
title: They could not stir, for their feet were stuck fast in the wet clay… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: They could not stir, for their feet were stuck fast in the wet clay of the river bank. Who acts: boys, feet. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, II. How Clay Dishes Were First Made, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/27/5/)

<!-- 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/) / [II. How Clay Dishes Were First Made](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/27/) / 5

# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, II. How Clay Dishes Were First Made, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could not stir, for their feet were stuck fast in the wet clay of the river bank.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boys, feet · **What happens:** not stir, be · **To what, where:** wet clay

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, II. How Clay Dishes Were First Made. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, feet), 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:pg73136:27:5
# text = They could not stir, for their feet were stuck fast in the wet clay of the river bank.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	stir	stir	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	stuck	stuck	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
11	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **stir** | could | boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | boys's feet |  |  | the wet clay of the river bank |  | fast, stuck *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/27/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/27/6/)
- ↑ back to [II. How Clay Dishes Were First Made](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/27/)