---
title: Sitting on his haunches, on the opposite side of the fire from where… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Sitting on his haunches, on the opposite side of the fire from where Iktomi stood, the coyote began to laugh at him. Who acts: coyote, Iktomi. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Coyote, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Coyote, sentence 62

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Sitting on his haunches, on the opposite side of the fire from where Iktomi stood, the coyote began to laugh at him.

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**Who acts:** coyote, Iktomi · **What happens:** sit, stand, begin, laugh · **To what, where:** haunches

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Coyote. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coyote, 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:pg338:5:62
# text = Sitting on his haunches, on the opposite side of the fire from where Iktomi stood, the coyote began to laugh at him.
1	Sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	advcl	_	_
2	on	on	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	haunches	haunch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	opposite	opposite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	16	advmod	_	_
15	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	coyote	coyote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | gerund | the coyote *not said here* |  |  | Iktomi's haunches |  | on the opposite side of the fire | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on haunch=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | past | Iktomi |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the coyote |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **laugh** | to-infinitive | the coyote *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at Iktomi | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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