---
title: Oh, no, I cannot give away the pretty creature I have taught to call… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Oh, no, I cannot give away the pretty creature I have taught to call me 'mother' all these many winters.” Who acts: I, pretty creature. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Toad and the Boy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, The Toad and the Boy, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Oh, no, I cannot give away the pretty creature I have taught to call me 'mother' all these many winters.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, pretty creature · **What happens:** not give away, teach, call · **To what, where:** pretty creature, I, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Toad and the Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, pretty creature), 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:pg338:12:82
# text = Oh, no, I cannot give away the pretty creature I have taught to call me 'mother' all these many winters.”
1	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	1	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	away	away	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	25	det:predet	_	_
23	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
24	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	winters	winter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **give away** | can | I | the pretty creature |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent creature=Theme |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* | present · perfect · passive | the pretty creature *not said here* | I |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **call** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | me |  | winter |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |

<!-- .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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