---
title: There was a momentary silence among the people while they listened t… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a momentary silence among the people while they listened to the ringing voice of the man walking in the center ground. Who acts: momentary silence, people, man. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iya, the Camp-eater, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iya, the Camp-eater, sentence 27

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There was a momentary silence among the people while they listened to the ringing voice of the man walking in the center ground.

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**Who acts:** momentary silence, people, man · **What happens:** be, listen, walk · **To what, where:** center ground

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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 (momentary silence, people, man), 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:pg338:13:27
# text = There was a momentary silence among the people while they listened to the ringing voice of the man walking in the center ground.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	momentary	momentary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	ringing	ringing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	center	center	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a momentary silence among the people |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **listen** | past | people |  |  |  |  | to the ringing voice of the man | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to voice=Theme |
| 3 | **walk** | gerund | the man *not said here* |  |  | the center ground |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ground=Trajectory |

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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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