---
title: Hereupon the drummers stretched their necks till they strangled thei… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Hereupon the drummers stretched their necks till they strangled their song for a look at the stranger passing by. Who acts: Hereupon, drummers, stranger. 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 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hereupon the drummers stretched their necks till they strangled their song for a look at the stranger passing by.

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**Who acts:** Hereupon, drummers, stranger · **What happens:** stretch, strangle, pass by, sing · **To what, where:** necks, song, stranger

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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 (Hereupon, drummers, stranger), 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:pg338:2:40
# text = Hereupon the drummers stretched their necks till they strangled their song for a look at the stranger passing by.
1	Hereupon	Hereupon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	drummers	drummer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	necks	neck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	strangled	strangle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
18	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stretch** | past | Hereupon | drummers's necks |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent neck=Patient |
| 2 | **strangle** | past | drummers *= drummer* | drummers's song |  | the stranger |  | for a look | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent song=Patient |
| 3 | **pass by** | gerund | the stranger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sing** |  | drummers *= drummer* |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=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.

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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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