---
title: “What? what?” asked they in great surprise, holding a hand to the ea… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “What? what?” asked they in great surprise, holding a hand to the ear to catch the words of the crier. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iya, the Camp-eater, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iya, the Camp-eater, sentence 26

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“What? what?” asked they in great surprise, holding a hand to the ear to catch the words of the crier.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** ask, hold, catch, word · **To what, where:** great surprise, hand, words, crier

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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 (people), 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:pg338:13:26
# text = “What? what?” asked they in great surprise, holding a hand to the ear to catch the words of the crier.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	crier	crier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | people |  |  | great surprise |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |
| 2 | **hold** | gerund | people *not said here* | a hand |  |  |  | to the ear | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | the words of the crier |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 4 | **word** |  |  | the crier |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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