---
title: The girl and the oldest boy promised faithfully to care for their li… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl and the oldest boy promised faithfully to care for their little brother, who was weak and suffered often from sickness. Who acts: girl, little brother. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIV. the Little Wolf Brother, with its dependency tre
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XIV. the Little Wolf Brother, sentence 4

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The girl and the oldest boy promised faithfully to care for their little brother, who was weak and suffered often from sickness.

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**Who acts:** girl, little brother · **What happens:** promise, care, be, suffer · **To what, where:** sickness

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIV. the Little Wolf Brother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, little brother), 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:pg73136:39:4
# text = The girl and the oldest boy promised faithfully to care for their little brother, who was weak and suffered often from sickness.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
7	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
21	often	often	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	sickness	sickness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | the girl and the oldest boy |  |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **care** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the girl and the oldest boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for girl's little brother | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent for brother=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | girl's little brother |  |  |  |  | weak *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **suffer** | participle | girl's little brother *not said here* |  |  | sickness |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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