---
title: His step was like the buffalo that has been shot. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: His step was like the buffalo that has been shot. Who acts: step, eye. 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 every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXII. an Indian Temperance Speech, sentence 23

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His step was like the buffalo that has been shot.

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**Who acts:** step, eye · **What happens:** be, shoot, step · **To what, where:** buffalo

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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 (step, eye), 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:pg73136:47:23
# text = His step was like the buffalo that has been shot.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	shot	shoot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | eye's step |  |  |  |  | like the buffalo | tree rules |
| 2 | **shoot** | present · perfect · passive |  | the buffalo |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **step** |  | eye |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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