---
title: His eyes shone like the fire in a cave, for his eyebrows were thick… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: His eyes shone like the fire in a cave, for his eyebrows were thick and white. Who acts: eyes, eyebrows. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXIV. the White Stone Canoe, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXIV. the White Stone Canoe, sentence 31

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His eyes shone like the fire in a cave, for his eyebrows were thick and white.

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**Who acts:** eyes, eyebrows · **What happens:** shine, be · **To what, where:** cave

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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 (eyes, eyebrows), 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:pg73136:49:31
# text = His eyes shone like the fire in a cave, for his eyebrows were thick and white.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	eyebrows	eyebrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shine** | past | snow's eyes |  |  | a cave |  | like the fire | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cave=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past | snow's eyebrows |  |  |  |  | thick *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | snow's eyebrows *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | 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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