---
title: The heap of smouldering ashes told of a recent open fire. — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The heap of smouldering ashes told of a recent open fire. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Muskrat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Muskrat, sentence 2

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The heap of smouldering ashes told of a recent open fire.

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**What happens:** tell · **To what, where:** smouldering ashes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Muskrat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg338:4:2
# text = The heap of smouldering ashes told of a recent open fire.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	smouldering	smouldering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	recent	recent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle |  | smouldering ashes *not said here* |  |  |  | of a recent open fire | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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