---
title: Very low in Iktomi's ear the peacock whispered, “Are you willing to… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Very low in Iktomi's ear the peacock whispered, “Are you willing to keep one condition, though hard it be?” Who acts: peacock, you, condition. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Fawn, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, Iktomi and the Fawn, sentence 22

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Very low in Iktomi's ear the peacock whispered, “Are you willing to keep one condition, though hard it be?”

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**Who acts:** peacock, you, condition · **What happens:** whisper, be, keep · **To what, where:** ear, one condition · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Iktomi and the Fawn. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (peacock, you, condition), 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:pg338:6:22
# text = Very low in Iktomi's ear the peacock whispered, “Are you willing to keep one condition, though hard it be?”
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	peacock	peacock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advcl	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whisper** *speech: ask* | past | the peacock |  |  | Iktomi's ear |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ear=Location |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | one condition |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent condition=Theme |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | infinitive | condition |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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