---
title: Perhaps a great fire might come and burn up all these trees; perhaps… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps a great fire might come and burn up all these trees; perhaps the river may come and drown us. Who acts: great fire, river. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit, sentence 32

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Perhaps a great fire might come and burn up all these trees; perhaps the river may come and drown us.

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**Who acts:** great fire, river · **What happens:** come, burn up, drown · **To what, where:** trees, us

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great fire, river), 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:pg73136:81:32
# text = Perhaps a great fire might come and burn up all these trees; perhaps the river may come and drown us.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	drown	drown	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
21	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | might | a great fire |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **burn up** | infinitive | a great fire *not said here* | all trees |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | may | the river |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **drown** | infinitive | the river *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |

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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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