---
title: The Great Serpent is older than mankind. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The Great Serpent is older than mankind. Who acts: Great Serpent. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, VII. Story of the First Man and Woman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, VII. Story of the First Man and Woman, sentence 8

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The Great Serpent is older than mankind.

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**Who acts:** Great Serpent · **What happens:** be

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, VII. Story of the First Man and Woman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Great Serpent), 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:pg73136:32:8
# text = The Great Serpent is older than mankind.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	mankind	mankind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the Great Serpent |  |  |  |  | than mankind; old *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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