---
title: In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him--if ever… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him--if ever dress is part of man or fairy. Who acts: paint, dress. 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 8

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In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him--if ever dress is part of man or fairy.

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**Who acts:** paint, dress · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** best part, truth, part

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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 (paint, dress), 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:pg338:2:8
# text = In truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him--if ever dress is part of man or fairy.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	paint	paint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	deerskins	deerskin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	dress	dress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | braid's paint and deerskins | the best part and part |  | truth |  | of braid | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | dress | part |  |  |  | of man or fairy | tree rules |

<!-- .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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