---
title: Quickly spreading it on the ground, he tore up dry tall grass with b… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Quickly spreading it on the ground, he tore up dry tall grass with both his hands and tossed it fast into the blanket. Who acts: IKTOMI. 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 23

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Quickly spreading it on the ground, he tore up dry tall grass with both his hands and tossed it fast into the blanket.

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**Who acts:** IKTOMI · **What happens:** spread, tore up, toss · **To what, where:** blanket, ground, dry tall grass

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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 (IKTOMI), 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:pg338:2:23
# text = Quickly spreading it on the ground, he tore up dry tall grass with both his hands and tossed it fast into the blanket.
1	Quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	both	both	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	17	det:predet	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	tossed	toss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	blanket	blanket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | gerund | IKTOMI *not said here* | blanket |  | the ground |  | quickly *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on ground=Destination |
| 2 | **tore up** | past | IKTOMI | dry tall grass |  |  |  | with IKTOMI's hands | tree rules |
| 3 | **toss** | past | IKTOMI *not said here* | blanket |  | the blanket |  | fast *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Patient into blanket=Recipient |

<!-- .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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