---
title: It was tough meat, full of sinews, yet it was the only piece he coul… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It was tough meat, full of sinews, yet it was the only piece he could take without his father's notice. Who acts: piece, 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 122

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It was tough meat, full of sinews, yet it was the only piece he could take without his father's notice.

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**Who acts:** piece, father · **What happens:** be, take, notice · **To what, where:** tough meat, only piece

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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 (piece, 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:pg338:7:122
# text = It was tough meat, full of sinews, yet it was the only piece he could take without his father's notice.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	tough	tough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	sinews	sinew	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	without	without	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	's	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	notice	notice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | piece | tough meat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | piece | the only piece |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | could | father | the only piece *not said here* |  |  |  | without father's father's notice | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Theme |
| 4 | **notice** |  | father's father |  |  |  |  |  | nom notice «communication 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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