---
title: The birds could all sing, and there was much music. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The birds could all sing, and there was much music. Who acts: birds, much music. 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 8

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The birds could all sing, and there was much music.

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**Who acts:** birds, much music · **What happens:** sing, be

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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 (birds, much music), 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:pg73136:61:8
# text = The birds could all sing, and there was much music.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | could | the birds |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 2 | **be** | past | much music |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «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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