---
title: Springing to his feet, Iktomi began at once to tighten the belt abou… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Springing to his feet, Iktomi began at once to tighten the belt about his waist. Who acts: Iktomi. 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 28

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Springing to his feet, Iktomi began at once to tighten the belt about his waist.

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**Who acts:** Iktomi · **What happens:** spring, begin, tighten · **To what, where:** feet, belt

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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: 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:pg338:4:28
# text = Springing to his feet, Iktomi began at once to tighten the belt about his waist.
1	Springing	spring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	obl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	tighten	tighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	belt	belt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	waist	waist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spring** | gerund | Iktomi *not said here* |  |  | Iktomi's feet |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to foot=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Iktomi |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **tighten** | to-infinitive | Iktomi *not said here* | the belt |  |  |  | about Iktomi's waist | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent belt=Patient |

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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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