---
title: In front of each wigwam was placed a skin on a pole to show what tot… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: In front of each wigwam was placed a skin on a pole to show what totem belonged to the family. Who acts: totem. 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 eve
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVII. How the Indians Came to Know Medicine Plants, sentence 5

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In front of each wigwam was placed a skin on a pole to show what totem belonged to the family.

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**Who acts:** totem · **What happens:** place, show, belong · **To what, where:** skin, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (totem), 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:pg73136:42:5
# text = In front of each wigwam was placed a skin on a pole to show what totem belonged to the family.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
5	wigwam	wigwam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	pole	pole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
16	totem	totem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past · passive |  | a skin |  | front of each wigwam |  | on a pole | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: skin=Theme on pole=Destination |
| 2 | **show** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **belong** | past | totem |  |  |  |  | to the family; what *obj* | 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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