---
title: As the startled ducks sat uneasily on the ground, Iktomi changed his… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: As the startled ducks sat uneasily on the ground, Iktomi changed his tune into a minor strain. Who acts: startled ducks, 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 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As the startled ducks sat uneasily on the ground, Iktomi changed his tune into a minor strain.

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**Who acts:** startled ducks, Iktomi · **What happens:** startle, sit, change · **To what, where:** ground, tune, minor strain

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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 (startled ducks, 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:pg338:2:71
# text = As the startled ducks sat uneasily on the ground, Iktomi changed his tune into a minor strain.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	uneasily	uneasily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	changed	change	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	minor	minor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	strain	strain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **startle** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **sit** | past | the startled ducks |  |  | the ground |  | uneasily *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 3 | **change** | past | Iktomi | IKTOMI's tune |  |  |  | into a minor strain *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent tune=Patient into strain=Result |

<!-- .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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