---
title: If he wished, he could make himself as short as a man. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: If he wished, he could make himself as short as a man. Who acts: tribe. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, I. Menabozho and His Three Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, I. Menabozho and His Three Brothers, sentence 32

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If he wished, he could make himself as short as a man.

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**Who acts:** tribe · **What happens:** wish, make · **To what, where:** tribe

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, I. Menabozho and His Three Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tribe), 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:pg73136:70:32
# text = If he wished, he could make himself as short as a man.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | tribe |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **make** | could | tribe | tribe |  |  |  | short *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Product |

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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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