---
title: While they were watching they saw him slowly rise in the air; his vo… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were watching they saw him slowly rise in the air; his voice sounded fainter and fainter; the spirits of the four winds raised him to the Great Star Lodge. Who acts: people, Man, voice, spirits. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXIX. th
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/54/9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / [XXIX. the Old Man in the Sky](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/54/) / 9

# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXIX. the Old Man in the Sky, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While they were watching they saw him slowly rise in the air; his voice sounded fainter and fainter; the spirits of the four winds raised him to the Great Star Lodge.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, Man, voice, spirits · **What happens:** watch, see, rise, sound, raise · **To what, where:** air, Man, Star Lodge · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXIX. the Old Man in the Sky. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, Man, voice, spirits), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg73136:54:9
# text = While they were watching they saw him slowly rise in the air; his voice sounded fainter and fainter; the spirits of the four winds raised him to the Great Star Lodge.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	rise	rise	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	fainter	faint	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	xcomp	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	fainter	faint	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	winds	wind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
27	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	Great	Great	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	Star	Star	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	Lodge	Lodge	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past · progressive | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **rise** | present | Man |  |  | the air |  | slowly *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in air=Location |
| 4 | **sound** | past | Man's voice |  |  |  |  | faint *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **raise** | past | the spirits of the four winds | Man | the Star Lodge |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to lodge=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/54/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/54/10/)
- ↑ back to [XXIX. the Old Man in the Sky](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/54/)