---
title: Just above his ankles he clasped and unclasped his long bony fingers. — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Just above his ankles he clasped and unclasped his long bony fingers. Who acts: chin. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Ducks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Ducks, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just above his ankles he clasped and unclasped his long bony fingers.

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**Who acts:** chin · **What happens:** clasp, unclasp · **To what, where:** ankles, long bony fingers

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Ducks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chin), 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:pg338:2:109
# text = Just above his ankles he clasped and unclasped his long bony fingers.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	above	above	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	ankles	ankle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	clasped	clasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	unclasped	unclasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
10	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	bony	bony	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clasp** | past | chin |  |  | chin's ankles |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **unclasp** | past | chin *not said here* | chin's long bony fingers |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finger=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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