---
title: They knew it was a spirit bird that had lost its way. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: They knew it was a spirit bird that had lost its way. Who acts: bows, bird. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXIX. Legend of the Wampum-bird and the Boy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XXXIX. Legend of the Wampum-bird and the Boy, sentence 12

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They knew it was a spirit bird that had lost its way.

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**Who acts:** bows, bird · **What happens:** know, be, lose · **To what, where:** spirit bird · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XXXIX. Legend of the Wampum-bird and the Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bows, bird), 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:pg73136:64:12
# text = They knew it was a spirit bird that had lost its way.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | bows *= bow* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | bird | a spirit bird |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lose** | past · perfect · passive |  | a spirit bird |  |  |  | bird's way *obj* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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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