---
title: Singing in his small high voice and dragging his feet in long stride… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Singing in his small high voice and dragging his feet in long strides after him, as if a prankish spirit oozed out from his heels, he strayed off through the tall grass. Who acts: prankish spirit, father. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Badger and the Bear, with its dependency 
---

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# Old Indian Legends, The Badger and the Bear, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Singing in his small high voice and dragging his feet in long strides after him, as if a prankish spirit oozed out from his heels, he strayed off through the tall grass.

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**Who acts:** prankish spirit, father · **What happens:** sing, drag, ooze out, stray off · **To what, where:** small high voice, feet, long strides, heels, tall grass

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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 (prankish spirit, 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:pg338:7:118
# text = Singing in his small high voice and dragging his feet in long strides after him, as if a prankish spirit oozed out from his heels, he strayed off through the tall grass.
1	Singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	csubj	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	strides	stride	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
14	after	after	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	prankish	prankish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	oozed	ooze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	strayed	stray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	through	through	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  | father's small high voice |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in voice=Location |
| 2 | **drag** | gerund |  | father's feet |  | long strides after father |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme |
| 3 | **ooze out** | past | a prankish spirit |  |  | father's heels |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from heel=Source |
| 4 | **stray off** | past | father |  |  | the tall grass |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through grass=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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