---
title: In an instant, as if his good intention had passed from him, he was… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant, as if his good intention had passed from him, he was singing happily and skipping around his father at work. Who acts: father. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Badger and the Bear, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, The Badger and the Bear, sentence 117

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In an instant, as if his good intention had passed from him, he was singing happily and skipping around his father at work.

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** pass, sing, skip, intend · **To what, where:** good intention, instant, work

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Badger and the Bear. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), 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:pg338:7:117
# text = In an instant, as if his good intention had passed from him, he was singing happily and skipping around his father at work.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	intention	intention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	skipping	skip	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
21	around	around	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past · perfect · passive |  | father's good intention |  | a instant |  | from father | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: subject=Theme from he=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | past · progressive | father |  |  |  |  | happily *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 3 | **skip** | gerund | father *not said here* |  |  | work |  | around father's father | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme around father=Trajectory |
| 4 | **intend** |  | father |  |  |  |  |  | nom intention «cognition transitive»: poss=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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