---
title: They were only the souls or shadows of trees. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: They were only the souls or shadows of trees. Who acts: things. 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 54

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They were only the souls or shadows of trees.

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**Who acts:** things · **What happens:** be, shadow · **To what, where:** souls, trees

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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 (things), 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:pg73136:49:54
# text = They were only the souls or shadows of trees.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	souls	soul	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | things *= thing* | the souls or shadows of trees |  |  |  | shadows of trees *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **shadow** |  |  | trees |  |  |  |  | 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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