---
title: He pounded the old wolf with the stout stick he used for a cane. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He pounded the old wolf with the stout stick he used for a cane. Who acts: fox. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XII. How the Bear Lost His Tail, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XII. How the Bear Lost His Tail, sentence 17

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He pounded the old wolf with the stout stick he used for a cane.

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**Who acts:** fox · **What happens:** pound, use · **To what, where:** old wolf, stout stick

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XII. How the Bear Lost His Tail. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox), 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:pg73136:37:17
# text = He pounded the old wolf with the stout stick he used for a cane.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	pounded	pound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	stout	stout	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cane	cane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pound** | past | fox | the old wolf |  |  |  | with the stout stick | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent wolf=Patient with stick=Instrument |
| 2 | **use** | past | fox | the stout stick *not said here* |  |  |  | for a cane | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent stick=Theme for cane=Eventuality |

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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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