---
title: Many, many moons ago three Indians sat on the bank of the great rive… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Many, many moons ago three Indians sat on the bank of the great river with many islands. Who acts: Many many moons. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, How He United the Five Nations, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, How He United the Five Nations, sentence 1

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Many, many moons ago three Indians sat on the bank of the great river with many islands.

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**Who acts:** Many many moons · **What happens:** sit · **To what, where:** bank

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, How He United the Five Nations. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Many many moons), 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:pg73136:77:1
# text = Many, many moons ago three Indians sat on the bank of the great river with many islands.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moons	moon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	Indians	Indian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | Many many moons |  |  | the bank of the great river |  | with many islands; three Indians *nsubj* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bank=Location |

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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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