---
title: Thus it was that one very black night, afar off from the edge of the… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus it was that one very black night, afar off from the edge of the level land, out of the wooded river bottom glided forth two balls of fire. Who acts: thread. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Dance in a Buffalo Skull, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Dance in a Buffalo Skull, sentence 10

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Thus it was that one very black night, afar off from the edge of the level land, out of the wooded river bottom glided forth two balls of fire.

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**Who acts:** thread · **What happens:** be, wood, glide · **To what, where:** night afar, edge, two balls

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Dance in a Buffalo Skull. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thread), 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:pg338:11:10
# text = Thus it was that one very black night, afar off from the edge of the level land, out of the wooded river bottom glided forth two balls of fire.
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	afar	afar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	off	off	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	level	level	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	wooded	wood	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
24	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
26	glided	glide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
27	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | thread | night afar |  | the edge of the level land |  | thus *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wood** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **glide** | past | thread *not said here* | two balls of fire |  |  |  | of the wooded river bottom | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent ball=Theme of bottom=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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