---
title: Nobody had been on it before they cut their way through the thick fo… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Nobody had been on it before they cut their way through the thick forest. Who acts: Nobody, Indians. 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 3

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Nobody had been on it before they cut their way through the thick forest.

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**Who acts:** Nobody, Indians · **What happens:** have, be, cut · **To what, where:** country, way, thick forest

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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 (Nobody, 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:pg73136:77:3
# text = Nobody had been on it before they cut their way through the thick forest.
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	cut	cut	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	through	through	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Nobody |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **be** | participle | Indians *= indian* *not said here* |  |  | country |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on it=Location |
| 3 | **cut** | present | Indians *= indian* | Indians's way |  | the thick forest |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset way=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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