---
title: Running back to the dead fire, they pawed out the ducks with such ru… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Running back to the dead fire, they pawed out the ducks with such rude haste that a cloud of ashes rose like gray smoke over them. Who acts: ducks, cloud. 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 150

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Running back to the dead fire, they pawed out the ducks with such rude haste that a cloud of ashes rose like gray smoke over them.

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**Who acts:** ducks, cloud · **What happens:** run back, paw out, rose, cloud · **To what, where:** ducks, such rude haste, ashes

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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 (ducks, cloud), 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:pg338:2:150
# text = Running back to the dead fire, they pawed out the ducks with such rude haste that a cloud of ashes rose like gray smoke over them.
1	Running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
2	back	back	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	pawed	paw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	rude	rude	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
22	rose	rose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
23	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run back** | gerund | ducks *= duck* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **paw out** | past | ducks *= duck* | the ducks |  |  |  | with such rude haste | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent duck=Patient with haste=Instrument |
| 3 | **rose** | present | a cloud of ashes | such rude haste |  |  |  | like gray smoke over ducks | tree rules |
| 4 | **cloud** |  |  | ashes |  |  |  |  | nom cloud «phenomenon 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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