---
title: The shadows of darkness were before him, and the clouds and coldness… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The shadows of darkness were before him, and the clouds and coldness of the night fell upon his track. Who acts: shadows, clouds. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXII. an Indian Temperance Speech, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXII. an Indian Temperance Speech, sentence 18

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The shadows of darkness were before him, and the clouds and coldness of the night fell upon his track.

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**Who acts:** shadows, clouds · **What happens:** be, fall, shadow · **To what, where:** track, darkness

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXII. an Indian Temperance Speech. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shadows, clouds), 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:pg73136:47:18
# text = The shadows of darkness were before him, and the clouds and coldness of the night fell upon his track.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	coldness	coldness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	track	track	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the shadows of darkness |  |  |  | before Spirit |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the clouds and coldness of the night |  |  | Spirit's track |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon track=Location |
| 3 | **shadow** |  |  | darkness |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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