---
title: The wolves are better than my brother; The wolves are better than my… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The wolves are better than my brother; The wolves are better than my sister. Who acts: wolves. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIV. the Little Wolf Brother, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XIV. the Little Wolf Brother, sentence 40

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The wolves are better than my brother; The wolves are better than my sister.

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**Who acts:** wolves · **What happens:** be

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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 (wolves), 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:pg73136:39:40
# text = The wolves are better than my brother; The wolves are better than my sister.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	conj	_	_
13	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the wolves |  |  |  |  | than my brother; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | the wolves |  |  |  |  | than my sister; good *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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