Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Meaning of Indian Totems and Names, sentence 10

If the Fox Indian had been asked why he used the fox picture, he would have said, if ready to talk: “My grandfather was a fox.”

Who acts: fox, grandfather · What happens: ask, use, say, talk, be · To what, where: Fox, fox picture · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Meaning of Indian Totems and Names. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, grandfather), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	If	if	SCONJ	_	7 asked	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 Fox	det
3	Fox	Fox	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 asked	nsubj
4	Indian	Indian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 Fox	amod
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 asked	aux
6	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 asked	aux:pass
7	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 said	advcl
8	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	10 used	advmod
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 used	nsubj
10	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 asked	advcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 picture	det
12	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 picture	compound
13	picture	picture	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 used	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 asked	punct
15	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 said	nsubj
16	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 said	aux
17	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	18 said	aux
18	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 ready	punct
20	if	if	SCONJ	_	21 ready	mark
21	ready	ready	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 said	conj
22	to	to	PART	_	23 talk	mark
23	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	21 ready	xcomp
24	:	:	PUNCT	_	30 fox	punct
25	“	"	PUNCT	_	30 fox	punct
26	My	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 grandfather	nmod:poss
27	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 fox	nsubj
28	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 fox	cop
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 fox	det
30	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 said	parataxis
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	30 fox	punct
32	”	"	PUNCT	_	30 fox	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ask speech: ask a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect · passive		the Fox	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	use	past	fox	the fox picture	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent picture=Patient
3	say speech: assert	would · perfect	fox		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	talk	to-infinitive	fox not said here		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	is a in a quote	past	My grandfather	a fox	tree rules

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.

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/14/10/

🌲 Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Meaning of Indian Totems and Names, sentence 10

The tree

Pragmatics

Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Meaning of Indian Totems and Names, sentence 10