---
title: A pack of wolves, fearing to come nigh this night fire, stood togeth… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: A pack of wolves, fearing to come nigh this night fire, stood together a little distance away, and, turning their pointed noses to the stars, howled and yelped most dismally. Who acts: pack. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Dance in a Buffalo Skull, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Dance in a Buffalo Skull, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A pack of wolves, fearing to come nigh this night fire, stood together a little distance away, and, turning their pointed noses to the stars, howled and yelped most dismally.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pack · **What happens:** fear, come, stand together, turn, howl, yelp · **To what, where:** night fire, little distance, pointed noses, stars

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (pack), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg338:11:24
# text = A pack of wolves, fearing to come nigh this night fire, stood together a little distance away, and, turning their pointed noses to the stars, howled and yelped most dismally.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pack	pack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	fearing	fear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	nigh	nigh	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
11	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
14	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	together	together	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	parataxis	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	pointed	pointed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	howled	howl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	yelped	yelp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
34	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	35	advmod	_	_
35	dismally	dismally	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fear** | gerund | a pack of wolves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | to-infinitive | a pack of wolves *not said here* | this night fire |  |  |  | nigh *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location fire=Theme |
| 3 | **stand together** | past | a pack of wolves | a little distance |  |  |  | away, together *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **turn** | gerund |  | wolves's pointed noses |  | the stars |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent nose=Theme to star=Trajectory |
| 5 | **howl** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **yelp** | past |  |  |  |  |  | dismally *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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