---
title: I paid them for the shells with elk meat so dry that they cannot eat… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: I paid them for the shells with elk meat so dry that they cannot eat it. Who acts: I, lips. 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 20

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I paid them for the shells with elk meat so dry that they cannot eat it.

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**Who acts:** I, lips · **What happens:** pay, not eat · **To what, where:** lips, meat

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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 (I, lips), 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:pg73136:63:20
# text = I paid them for the shells with elk meat so dry that they cannot eat it.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	paid	pay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	shells	shell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	elk	elk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	compound	_	_
9	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pay** | past | I | lips *= lip* |  |  |  | for the shells; with elk meat | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Asset for shell=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **eat** | can | lips *= lip* | meat |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

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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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