---
title: I know they are starving, but they could see; they did not have to t… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: I know they are starving, but they could see; they did not have to take the meat. 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 21

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I know they are starving, but they could see; they did not have to take the meat.

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**Who acts:** I, lips · **What happens:** know, starve, see, not have, take · **To what, where:** meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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:pg73136:63:21
# text = I know they are starving, but they could see; they did not have to take the meat.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **starve** | present · progressive | lips *= lip* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | could | lips *= lip* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **have** | past · do-support | lips *= lip* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | lips *= lip* *not said here* | the meat |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=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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