---
title: They saw a star leave the sky one night. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw a star leave the sky one night. Who acts: stars, star. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXVI. How the Water Lily Came, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXXVI. How the Water Lily Came, sentence 14

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They saw a star leave the sky one night.

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**Who acts:** stars, star · **What happens:** see, leave · **To what, where:** sky · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXVI. How the Water Lily Came. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stars, star), 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:pg73136:61:14
# text = They saw a star leave the sky one night.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | stars *= star* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **leave** | infinitive | a star | the sky |  |  | night |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sky=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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