---
title: Birds sang in the trees; all signs showed him that he was on the rig… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Birds sang in the trees; all signs showed him that he was on the right trail, for he had heard his tribe tell of these things. Who acts: Birds, signs, snow. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXIV. the White Stone Canoe, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXIV. the White Stone Canoe, sentence 25

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Birds sang in the trees; all signs showed him that he was on the right trail, for he had heard his tribe tell of these things.

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**Who acts:** Birds, signs, snow · **What happens:** sing, show, be, hear · **To what, where:** trees, snow, right trail, tribe tell · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXIV. the White Stone Canoe. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Birds, signs, snow), 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:pg73136:49:25
# text = Birds sang in the trees; all signs showed him that he was on the right trail, for he had heard his tribe tell of these things.
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	trail	trail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	tell	tell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | Birds |  |  | the trees |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in tree=Location |
| 2 | **show** | past | all signs |  | snow |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | past | snow |  |  | the right trail |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hear** | past · perfect | snow | snow's tribe tell of this things |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer tell=Stimulus |

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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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