---
title: It bent them like a horseshoe, and they are that shape to this day. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: It bent them like a horseshoe, and they are that shape to this day. Who acts: body, rocks. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XVI. Legend of Niagara Falls, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Legend of Niagara Falls, sentence 45

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It bent them like a horseshoe, and they are that shape to this day.

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**Who acts:** body, rocks · **What happens:** bend, be · **To what, where:** rocks, shape

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XVI. Legend of Niagara Falls. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (body, rocks), 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:pg73136:41:45
# text = It bent them like a horseshoe, and they are that shape to this day.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	horseshoe	horseshoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend** | past | body | rocks *= rock* |  |  |  | like a horseshoe | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent they=Material |
| 2 | **is a** | present | rocks *= rock* | shape |  |  | day |  | 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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