---
title: She could see the people, but could not hear them talk. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: She could see the people, but could not hear them talk. Who acts: young brave, people. 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 31

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She could see the people, but could not hear them talk.

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**Who acts:** young brave, people · **What happens:** see, not hear, talk · **To what, where:** people

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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 (young brave, people), 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:pg73136:61:31
# text = She could see the people, but could not hear them talk.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | young brave *= brave* | the people |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer people=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **hear** | could | young brave *= brave* *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **talk** | infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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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