---
title: He spoke in a strange language, She could not understand him. — Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems · tree and pragmatics
description: He spoke in a strange language, She could not understand him. Who acts: man, woman. A sentence of «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems, Opening, part 18, sentence 6

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He spoke in a strange language, She could not understand him.

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**Who acts:** man, woman · **What happens:** speak, not understand · **To what, where:** strange language, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, woman), 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:pg78673:18:6
# text = He spoke in a strange language, She could not understand him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | man |  |  | a strange language |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **understand** | could | woman | man |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

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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:** «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Project Gutenberg book 78673 (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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