---
title: The moccasins seemed to be always within the reach of his hands, but… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The moccasins seemed to be always within the reach of his hands, but he could never touch them. Who acts: moccasins, Wahkandee. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XL. the Magic Moccasins, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/65/18/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / [XL. the Magic Moccasins](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/65/) / 18

# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XL. the Magic Moccasins, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The moccasins seemed to be always within the reach of his hands, but he could never touch them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** moccasins, Wahkandee · **What happens:** seem, be, not touch · **To what, where:** moccasins

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XL. the Magic Moccasins. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moccasins, Wahkandee), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg73136:65:18
# text = The moccasins seemed to be always within the reach of his hands, but he could never touch them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	moccasins	moccasin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
6	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	9	advmod	_	_
7	within	within	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	reach	reach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the moccasins |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the moccasins *not said here* |  |  |  |  | within the reach; of Wahkandee's hands; always *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **touch** | could | Wahkandee | moccasins *= moccasin* |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/65/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/65/19/)
- ↑ back to [XL. the Magic Moccasins](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/65/)