---
title: The singing of men and women, the beating of the drum, the rattling… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The singing of men and women, the beating of the drum, the rattling of deer-hoofs strung like bells on a string, these were the sounds they heard. Who acts: these, bells, deer hoofs. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iya, the Camp-eater, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/13/85/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Old Indian Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/) / [Iya, the Camp-eater](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/13/) / 85

# Old Indian Legends, Iya, the Camp-eater, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The singing of men and women, the beating of the drum, the rattling of deer-hoofs strung like bells on a string, these were the sounds they heard.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** these, bells, deer hoofs · **What happens:** string, be, hear, sing, beat, rattle · **To what, where:** deer hoofs, string, sounds, men, drum

<!-- .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 (these, bells, deer hoofs), 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:pg338:13:85
# text = The singing of men and women, the beating of the drum, the rattling of deer-hoofs strung like bells on a string, these were the sounds they heard.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rattling	rattling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	deer	deer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
20	strung	string	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	30	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	appos	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **string** | participle |  | deer hoofs *not said here* |  | a string |  | like bells | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme on string=Destination |
| 2 | **is a** | past | these | the sounds |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | past | bells *= bell* | the sounds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sing** |  |  | men and women |  |  |  |  | nom singing «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **beat** |  |  | the drum |  |  |  |  | nom beating «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **rattle** |  | deer hoofs |  |  |  |  |  | nom rattling «event intransitive»: of=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/13/84/)
- next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/13/86/)
- ↑ back to [Iya, the Camp-eater](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/13/)