---
title: The rivers would not go back, and he could not see any land. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The rivers would not go back, and he could not see any land. Who acts: rivers, water. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, II. Story of the Deluge, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, II. Story of the Deluge, sentence 8

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The rivers would not go back, and he could not see any land.

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**Who acts:** rivers, water · **What happens:** not go back, not see · **To what, where:** land

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, II. Story of the Deluge. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rivers, water), 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:pg73136:71:8
# text = The rivers would not go back, and he could not see any land.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	back	back	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
13	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	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 | **not** **go back** | would | the rivers |  |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **see** | could | water | any land |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer land=Stimulus |

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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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