---
title: The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have sai… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them. Who acts: Aztecs, Indians. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Indian Records, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Indian Records, sentence 22

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The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them.

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**Who acts:** Aztecs, Indians · **What happens:** have, say, build · **To what, where:** serpent god, some, mounds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Indian Records. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Aztecs, 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:pg73136:8:22
# text = The Aztecs, or Mexican Indians, had a serpent god, and some have said that these mounds must have been built by them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Aztecs	Aztec	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	Mexican	Mexican	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Indians	Indian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	parataxis	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
18	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	mounds	mound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the Aztecs or Mexican Indians | a serpent god |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent god=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | some |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 3 | **build** | must · perfect · passive | Indians *= indian* | this mounds |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset subject=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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