---
title: Where the first Indians came from the most learned white man cannot… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Where the first Indians came from the most learned white man cannot tell. Who acts: first Indians. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Menabozho, or the Great White Hare, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Menabozho, or the Great White Hare, sentence 29

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Where the first Indians came from the most learned white man cannot tell.

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**Who acts:** first Indians · **What happens:** come, learn, not tell · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Menabozho, or the Great White Hare. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (first Indians), 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:pg73136:69:29
# text = Where the first Indians came from the most learned white man cannot tell.
1	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	amod	_	_
4	Indians	Indian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
8	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	9	advmod	_	_
9	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	amod	_	_
10	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the first Indians |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **learn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | the first Indians *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from the learned white man | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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