---
title: He slowly turned his face toward him and whispered: “Let me break my… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He slowly turned his face toward him and whispered: “Let me break my fast; I have no dreams.” Who acts: father. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XLI. Opechee the Robin Redbreast, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XLI. Opechee the Robin Redbreast, sentence 23

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He slowly turned his face toward him and whispered: “Let me break my fast; I have no dreams.”

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** turn, whisper, let, break, have · **To what, where:** face, father, dreams · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XLI. Opechee the Robin Redbreast. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), 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:pg73136:66:23
# text = He slowly turned his face toward him and whispered: “Let me break my fast; I have no dreams.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	dreams	dream	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | father | father's face |  |  |  | toward boy; slowly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent face=Theme toward he=Trajectory |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **break** *in a quote* | infinitive | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | present | father | no dreams |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dream=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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