---
title: Though he was a stranger and his strong paws and jaws frightened the… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Though he was a stranger and his strong paws and jaws frightened the small badgers, the father said, “How, how, friend! Who acts: foot, strong paws, 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 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Though he was a stranger and his strong paws and jaws frightened the small badgers, the father said, “How, how, friend!

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**Who acts:** foot, strong paws, father · **What happens:** be, frighten, say · **To what, where:** stranger, small badgers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (foot, strong paws, 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:pg338:7:29
# text = Though he was a stranger and his strong paws and jaws frightened the small badgers, the father said, “How, how, friend!
1	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	advcl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	jaws	jaw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
12	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	badgers	badger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | foot | a stranger and foot's strong paws and jaws |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **frighten** | past | foot's strong paws and jaws *not said here* | the small badgers |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus badger=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the father |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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