Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Custer’s Heart, sentence 10

But whoever plucks the flower must hold it gently, for if it should be crushed, the scarlet stain, the Indians claim, could never be washed away.

Who acts: whoever, flower, Indians · What happens: pluck, hold, crush, claim, not wash away · To what, where: plant, scarlet stain

This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XVI. Custer’s Heart. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whoever, flower, Indians), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	3 plucks	cc
2	whoever	whoever	PRON	PronType=Rel	3 plucks	nsubj
3	plucks	pluck	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 flower	det
5	flower	flower	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hold	nsubj
6	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 hold	aux
7	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 plucks	ccomp
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 hold	obj
9	gently	gently	ADV	_	7 hold	advmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 crushed	punct
11	for	for	SCONJ	_	16 crushed	mark
12	if	if	SCONJ	_	16 crushed	mark
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 crushed	nsubj:pass
14	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 crushed	aux
15	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	16 crushed	aux:pass
16	crushed	crush	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 hold	conj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 stain	punct
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 stain	det
19	scarlet	scarlet	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 stain	compound
20	stain	stain	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 crushed	obl
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 claim	punct
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 Indians	det
23	Indians	Indian	PROPN	Number=Plur	24 claim	nsubj
24	claim	claim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 stain	acl:relcl
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 washed	punct
26	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 washed	aux
27	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	29 washed	advmod
28	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	29 washed	aux:pass
29	washed	wash	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 hold	parataxis
30	away	away	ADV	_	29 washed	advmod
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 plucks	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	pluck	present	whoever			tree rules
2	hold	must	the flower	plant	gently property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	crush a condition, not said to happen	should · passive		plant	the scarlet stain obl	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
4	claim speech: other	present	the Indians	the scarlet stain not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent stain=Topic
5	not wash away	could · passive			away property	vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»

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/pg73136/85/10/

🌲 Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Custer’s Heart, sentence 10

The tree

Pragmatics

Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Custer’s Heart, sentence 10