---
title: “I used to run races when I was in town. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: “I used to run races when I was in town. Who acts: marten. 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 of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit, sentence 47

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“I used to run races when I was in town.

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**Who acts:** marten · **What happens:** use, run, be · **To what, where:** races, town

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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 (marten), 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:pg73136:81:47
# text = “I used to run races when I was in town.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	races	race	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** *in a quote* | past | the marten *= marten* |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **run** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the marten *= marten* *not said here* | races |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme race=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | the marten *= marten* |  |  | town |  |  | 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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