---
title: “Tell me more about the thunder-birds,” said the white man. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: “Tell me more about the thunder-birds,” said the white man. Who acts: white man. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, VII. the Thunder-bird of the Dakotas, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, VII. the Thunder-bird of the Dakotas, sentence 32

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“Tell me more about the thunder-birds,” said the white man.

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**Who acts:** white man · **What happens:** tell, say · **To what, where:** more, white man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, VII. the Thunder-bird of the Dakotas. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white man), 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:pg73136:76:32
# text = “Tell me more about the thunder-birds,” said the white man.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	obj	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  | more about the thunder birds | the white man *= man* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient more=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the white man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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