---
title: He told a little nibanabas that if the little people of the forest,… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He told a little nibanabas that if the little people of the forest, the pukwudjinnies, could hit him with cones from the pine trees, he would die. Who acts: Marie, little people. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, VIII. Giants and Fairies, with its 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/33/9/)

<!-- 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/) / [VIII. Giants and Fairies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/33/) / 9

# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, VIII. Giants and Fairies, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He told a little nibanabas that if the little people of the forest, the pukwudjinnies, could hit him with cones from the pine trees, he would die.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Marie, little people · **What happens:** tell, hit, die · **To what, where:** little nibanabas, Marie, pine trees · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, VIII. Giants and Fairies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Marie, little people), 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:pg73136:33:9
# text = He told a little nibanabas that if the little people of the forest, the pukwudjinnies, could hit him with cones from the pine trees, he would die.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	nibanabas	nibanaba	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pukwudjinnies	pukwudjinny	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	hit	hit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	cones	cone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	pine	pine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Marie | a little nibanabas |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent nibanaba=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **hit** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | the little people of the forest and the pukwudjinnies | Marie |  | the pine trees |  | with cones | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with cone=Instrument |
| 3 | **die** | would | Marie |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/33/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/33/10/)
- ↑ back to [VIII. Giants and Fairies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/33/)