---
title: The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white m… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them. Who acts: Indians, white man, painted picture writing, languages. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Books in th
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Books in the Indian Language, sentence 3

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The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them.

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**Who acts:** Indians, white man, painted picture writing, languages · **What happens:** have, print, come, paint, carve, mean · **To what, where:** printed languages, much

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Books in the Indian Language. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Indians, white man, painted picture writing, languages), 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:pg73136:5:3
# text = The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Indians	Indian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
5	printed	print	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
6	languages	language	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
16	painted	paint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	amod	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	carved	carve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
19	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the Indians | no printed languages |  |  |  | with letters | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Patient |
| 2 | **print** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come** | past | the white man |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **paint** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **carve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **mean** | past | languages's painted picture writing | much |  |  |  | to languages *= language* | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot much=Theme to they=Attribute |
| 7 | **write** |  | languages *= language* |  |  |  |  |  | nom writing «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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