---
title: His hair was like a blanket on his back; it lay on the ground while… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: His hair was like a blanket on his back; it lay on the ground while he was smoking. Who acts: hair, water. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXVIII. a Rip Van Winkle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXXVIII. a Rip Van Winkle, sentence 103

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His hair was like a blanket on his back; it lay on the ground while he was smoking.

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**Who acts:** hair, water · **What happens:** be, lie, smoke · **To what, where:** back, ground

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXVIII. a Rip Van Winkle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hair, water), 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:pg73136:63:103
# text = His hair was like a blanket on his back; it lay on the ground while he was smoking.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	blanket	blanket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	smoking	smoke	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | water's hair |  |  | water's back |  | like a blanket | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | past | hair |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 3 | **smoke** | past · progressive | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1-1 «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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