---
title: “If I were as tall as he, I would carry you across this little river.” — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: “If I were as tall as he, I would carry you across this little river.” Who acts: little weasel. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIII. the Blue Heron and the Wolf, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XIII. the Blue Heron and the Wolf, sentence 7

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“If I were as tall as he, I would carry you across this little river.”

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**Who acts:** little weasel · **What happens:** be, carry · **To what, where:** you, little river

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIII. the Blue Heron and the Wolf. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little weasel), 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:pg73136:38:7
# text = “If I were as tall as he, I would carry you across this little river.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	across	across	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | the little weasel *= weasel* |  |  |  |  | as bird; tall *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **carry** *in a quote* | would | the little weasel *= weasel* | you |  | this little river |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |

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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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