---
title: “Peboan may tell first what he can do,” said Segun. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: “Peboan may tell first what he can do,” said Segun. Who acts: Peboan, Segun. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, X. Legend of the Arbutus, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, X. Legend of the Arbutus, sentence 42

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“Peboan may tell first what he can do,” said Segun.

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**Who acts:** Peboan, Segun · **What happens:** tell, do, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, X. Legend of the Arbutus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Peboan, Segun), 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:pg73136:79:42
# text = “Peboan may tell first what he can do,” said Segun.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Peboan	Peboan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
5	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Segun	Segun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	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* | may | Peboan |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | can | Peboan |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Segun |  |  |  |  |  | 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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