---
title: It was his mother talking to him. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: It was his mother talking to him. Who acts: Music, mother. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXV. Legend of Mackinaw Island, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXXV. Legend of Mackinaw Island, sentence 59

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It was his mother talking to him.

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**Who acts:** Music, mother · **What happens:** be, talk · **To what, where:** mother, Osseo

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXV. Legend of Mackinaw Island. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Music, mother), 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:pg73136:60:59
# text = It was his mother talking to him.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Music | Osseo's mother |  |  |  | Osseo *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** | gerund | Osseo's mother *not said here* |  | Osseo |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-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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