---
title: While sitting a prisoner on the tree he spied, through his tears, a… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: While sitting a prisoner on the tree he spied, through his tears, a pack of gray wolves roaming over the level lands. Who acts: whiff, gray wolves, sitting. 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 128

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While sitting a prisoner on the tree he spied, through his tears, a pack of gray wolves roaming over the level lands.

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**Who acts:** whiff, gray wolves, sitting · **What happens:** sit, spy, roam, land · **To what, where:** prisoner, tree, level

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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 (whiff, gray wolves, sitting), 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:pg338:2:128
# text = While sitting a prisoner on the tree he spied, through his tears, a pack of gray wolves roaming over the level lands.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	csubj	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	through	through	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pack	pack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	gray	gray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	roaming	roam	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	level	level	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	lands	land	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | gerund |  | a prisoner |  | the tree |  | through whiff's tears and a pack of gray wolves | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent prisoner=Theme on tree=Location |
| 2 | **spy** | past | whiff | the tree *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tree=Stimulus |
| 3 | **roam** | gerund | gray wolves *not said here* |  |  | the level |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over level=Trajectory |
| 4 | **land** | present | sitting |  |  |  |  |  | vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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