---
title: Just then they heard a soft step on the brown pine needles; the mart… — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Just then they heard a soft step on the brown pine needles; the marten flattened himself down on the ground, and his brown fur could not be seen. Who acts: people, marten. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit, with
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/81/42/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / [XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/81/) / 42

# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just then they heard a soft step on the brown pine needles; the marten flattened himself down on the ground, and his brown fur could not be seen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, marten · **What happens:** hear, flatten down, not see · **To what, where:** soft step, brown pine needles, marten, ground, brown fur

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (people, marten), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg73136:81:42
# text = Just then they heard a soft step on the brown pine needles; the marten flattened himself down on the ground, and his brown fur could not be seen.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	pine	pine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	needles	needle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	marten	marten	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	flattened	flatten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | people | a soft step |  | the brown pine needles | then |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer step=Stimulus |
| 2 | **flatten down** | past | the marten | marten |  | the ground |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **see** | could · passive |  | marten's brown fur |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/81/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/81/43/)
- ↑ back to [XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/81/)