---
title: The animals could not decide what was best, but the chipmunk kept sa… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The animals could not decide what was best, but the chipmunk kept saying: “Light will come. Who acts: animals, chipmunk, Light. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXIII. the Chipmunk’s Black Stripes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXXIII. the Chipmunk’s Black Stripes, sentence 18

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The animals could not decide what was best, but the chipmunk kept saying: “Light will come.

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**Who acts:** animals, chipmunk, Light · **What happens:** not decide, be, keep, say, come · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXIII. the Chipmunk’s Black Stripes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animals, chipmunk, Light), 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:pg73136:58:18
# text = The animals could not decide what was best, but the chipmunk kept saying: “Light will come.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	decide	decide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	chipmunk	chipmunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **decide** | could | the animals |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** | past | the chipmunk |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the chipmunk *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | future | Light |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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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