---
title: Before he could reach his own burrow he had to drop the burning coal. — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · tree and pragmatics
description: Before he could reach his own burrow he had to drop the burning coal. Who acts: chief, own burrow. 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 clau
---

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# Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XIII. How Light, Fire, and Water First Came to the World, sentence 33

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Before he could reach his own burrow he had to drop the burning coal.

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**Who acts:** chief, own burrow · **What happens:** reach, have, drop · **To what, where:** own burrow, burning coal

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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, own burrow), 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:pg73136:82:33
# text = Before he could reach his own burrow he had to drop the burning coal.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	burrow	burrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	drop	drop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	burning	burning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | could | chief | chief's own burrow |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent burrow=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | chief | chief's own burrow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **drop** | to-infinitive | chief's own burrow *not said here* | the burning coal |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent coal=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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