---
title: An Indian in his canoe at night can watch this star and know which w… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: An Indian in his canoe at night can watch this star and know which way to go. Who acts: Indian. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXVII. the Star That Never Moves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXVII. the Star That Never Moves, sentence 48

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An Indian in his canoe at night can watch this star and know which way to go.

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**Who acts:** Indian · **What happens:** watch, know, go · **To what, where:** star, canoe, way

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXVII. the Star That Never Moves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Indian), 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:pg73136:52:48
# text = An Indian in his canoe at night can watch this star and know which way to go.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	nsubj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	15	det	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | can | a Indian | this star |  | Mukwa's canoe at night |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent star=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | present | a Indian *not said here* | which way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | to-infinitive | a Indian *not said here* | which way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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