---
title: Mah-pí-ya Dúta will listen to me There are fairer birds in the bush… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Mah-pí-ya Dúta will listen to me There are fairer birds in the bush than she, And the fairest would gladly be Red Cloud's wife. Who acts: Mah pí ya, fairer birds, fairest. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Heyóka Wacípee [16]--the Giant's Dance., with its dependency 
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance., sentence 117

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Mah-pí-ya Dúta will listen to me There are fairer birds in the bush than she, And the fairest would gladly be Red Cloud's wife.

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**Who acts:** Mah pí ya, fairer birds, fairest · **What happens:** listen, be · **To what, where:** me, bush, Red wife

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mah pí ya, fairer birds, fairest), 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:pg8122:7:117
# text = Mah-pí-ya Dúta will listen to me There are fairer birds in the bush than she, And the fairest would gladly be Red Cloud's wife.
1	Mah	Mah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	pí	pí	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	ya	ya	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	Dúta	Dúta	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
12	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	fairer	fair	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	amod	_	_
14	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
21	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fairest	fair	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
25	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
27	Red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
28	Cloud	Cloud	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | future | Mah pí ya |  | me |  |  | Dúta *nsubj* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to i=Theme |
| 2 | **does** | present | fairer birds |  |  | the bush than ya; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in bush=Location |
| 3 | **is a** | would | the fairest | Cloud's Red wife |  |  |  | Cloud *nmod:poss*; gladly *property* | 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:** «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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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