---
title: “My friend, you are a skilled hunter,” began Iktomi, smiling a thin… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “My friend, you are a skilled hunter,” began Iktomi, smiling a thin smile which spread from one ear to the other. Who acts: you, friend, thin smile. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Turtle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Turtle, sentence 13

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“My friend, you are a skilled hunter,” began Iktomi, smiling a thin smile which spread from one ear to the other.

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**Who acts:** you, friend, thin smile · **What happens:** be, begin, smile, spread · **To what, where:** skilled hunter, Iktomi, thin smile, one ear

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Turtle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, friend, thin smile), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg338:10:13
# text = “My friend, you are a skilled hunter,” began Iktomi, smiling a thin smile which spread from one ear to the other.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	skilled	skilled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	hunter	hunter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	smiling	smile	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | you | a skilled hunter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | My friend and a skilled hunter | Iktomi |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent iktomi=Eventuality |
| 3 | **smile** | gerund | My friend and a skilled hunter *not said here* | a thin smile |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent smile=Topic |
| 4 | **spread** | past | a thin smile |  |  | one ear |  | to the other | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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:** «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Project Gutenberg book 338 (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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