---
title: “Ha! ha!” laughed the muskrat, and leaning over the limb he sat upon… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ha! ha!” laughed the muskrat, and leaning over the limb he sat upon, he let fall a small sharp bone which dropped right into Iktomi's throat. Who acts: Iktomi, small sharp bone. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Muskrat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Muskrat, sentence 78

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“Ha! ha!” laughed the muskrat, and leaning over the limb he sat upon, he let fall a small sharp bone which dropped right into Iktomi's throat.

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**Who acts:** Iktomi, small sharp bone · **What happens:** laugh, lean, sit, fall, drop · **To what, where:** muskrat, limb, small sharp bone, throat

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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, small sharp bone), 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:pg338:4:78
# text = “Ha! ha!” laughed the muskrat, and leaning over the limb he sat upon, he let fall a small sharp bone which dropped right into Iktomi's throat.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ha	ha	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	ha	ha	INTJ	UH	_	2	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	csubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	muskrat	muskrat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	limb	limb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	let	let	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	right	right	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	's	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past |  | the muskrat |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent muskrat=Theme |
| 2 | **lean** | gerund |  |  |  | the limb |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over limb=Location |
| 3 | **sit** | past | Iktomi | the limb *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location limb=Theme |
| 4 | **fall** |  | Iktomi | a small sharp bone |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient bone=Result |
| 5 | **drop** | past | a small sharp bone |  |  | Iktomi's throat |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into throat=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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