---
title: The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit. Who acts: bark canoe, white hunters, skin boat, skill. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Some Thi
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Some Things the Indians Knew Before White Men Came, sentence 2

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The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.

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**Who acts:** bark canoe, white hunters, skin boat, skill · **What happens:** be, have, use · **To what, where:** strength

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Some Things the Indians Knew Before White Men Came. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bark canoe, white hunters, skin boat, skill), 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:pg73136:6:2
# text = The birch-bark canoe is light and very swift, and white hunters are proud of their skill in its use, but the skin boat has only strength as its merit.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	swift	swift	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	hunters	hunter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	proud	proud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
29	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	as	as	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	merit	merit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the bark canoe |  |  |  |  | light *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the bark canoe *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | white hunters |  |  |  |  | of canoes's skill in skill's use; proud *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | present | the skin boat | strength |  |  |  | as boat's merit | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strength=Patient |
| 5 | **use** |  | skill |  |  |  |  |  | nom use «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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