---
title: He fell like a tree torn by lightning, with its green leaves withere… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He fell like a tree torn by lightning, with its green leaves withered on its branches. Who acts: Joy. 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 28

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He fell like a tree torn by lightning, with its green leaves withered on its branches.

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**Who acts:** Joy · **What happens:** fall, tear, wither · **To what, where:** tree, green leaves, branches

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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 (Joy), 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:pg73136:47:28
# text = He fell like a tree torn by lightning, with its green leaves withered on its branches.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
14	withered	wither	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | Joy |  |  |  |  | like a tree; with tree's green leaves | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tear** | participle |  | a tree *not said here* |  |  |  | by lightning | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by lightning=Trajectory |
| 3 | **wither** | participle |  | tree's green leaves *not said here* |  | tree's branches |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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