---
title: Many winters ago a poor, sickly old man came to an Indian village. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Many winters ago a poor, sickly old man came to an Indian village. Who acts: Many winters. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XVII. How the Indians Came to Know Medicine Plants, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVII. How the Indians Came to Know Medicine Plants, sentence 4

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Many winters ago a poor, sickly old man came to an Indian village.

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**Who acts:** Many winters · **What happens:** come · **To what, where:** Indian village

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XVII. How the Indians Came to Know Medicine Plants. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Many winters), 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:pg73136:42:4
# text = Many winters ago a poor, sickly old man came to an Indian village.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	winters	winter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
3	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	sickly	sickly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Many winters |  |  | a Indian village |  | a poor sickly old man *nsubj*; ago *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to village=Initial\_Location |

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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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