---
title: Behold! the lake was dry, and its bed was a mass of shells. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Behold! the lake was dry, and its bed was a mass of shells. Who acts: lake, bed. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, IX. Wampum or Indian Money, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, IX. Wampum or Indian Money, sentence 9

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Behold! the lake was dry, and its bed was a mass of shells.

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**Who acts:** lake, bed · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** mass

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, IX. Wampum or Indian Money. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lake, bed), 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:pg73136:78:9
# text = Behold! the lake was dry, and its bed was a mass of shells.
1	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	mass	mass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	shells	shell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the lake |  |  |  |  | dry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | lake's bed | a mass |  |  |  | of shells | tree rules |

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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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