---
title: He reached the precious coals of fire and caught one in his mouth. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: He reached the precious coals of fire and caught one in his mouth. Who acts: chief. A sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIII. How Light, Fire, and Water First Came to the World, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XIII. How Light, Fire, and Water First Came to the World, sentence 31

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He reached the precious coals of fire and caught one in his mouth.

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**Who acts:** chief · **What happens:** reach, catch · **To what, where:** precious coals, one, mouth

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This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XIII. How Light, Fire, and Water First Came to the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief), 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:pg73136:82:31
# text = He reached the precious coals of fire and caught one in his mouth.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	coals	coal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | chief | the precious coals of fire |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent coal=Theme |
| 2 | **catch** | past | chief *not said here* | one |  | chief's mouth |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |

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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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