---
title: “At times it sounds like an old man's voice!” whispered a superstiti… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “At times it sounds like an old man's voice!” whispered a superstitious fellow, who feared some bad spirit hid in the small child to cheat them by and by. Who acts: voice, superstitious fellow, bad spirit. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iya, the Camp-eater, with its dependency tre
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iya, the Camp-eater, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“At times it sounds like an old man's voice!” whispered a superstitious fellow, who feared some bad spirit hid in the small child to cheat them by and by.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** voice, superstitious fellow, bad spirit · **What happens:** sound, whisper, fear, hide, cheat · **To what, where:** men · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iya, the Camp-eater. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voice, superstitious fellow, bad spirit), 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:pg338:13:10
# text = “At times it sounds like an old man's voice!” whispered a superstitious fellow, who feared some bad spirit hid in the small child to cheat them by and by.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sounds	sound	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	superstitious	superstitious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
22	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	cheat	cheat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	obl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sound** *in a quote* | present | voice |  |  |  | time | like a old man's voice | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: express* | past | a superstitious fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fear** | past | a superstitious fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **hide** | past | some bad spirit |  |  |  |  | in the small child | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in child=Location |
| 5 | **cheat** | to-infinitive | some bad spirit *not said here* | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | vn cheat-10.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Source |

<!-- .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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