---
title: While the well-fed children played about, digging little make-believ… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: While the well-fed children played about, digging little make-believe dwellings, their mother hung thin sliced meats upon long willow racks. Who acts: mother. 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 8

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While the well-fed children played about, digging little make-believe dwellings, their mother hung thin sliced meats upon long willow racks.

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**Who acts:** mother · **What happens:** feed, play about, dig, believe, hang, slice · **To what, where:** fed children, little make, dwellings, thin sliced meats, long willow racks

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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 (mother), 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:pg338:7:8
# text = While the well-fed children played about, digging little make-believe dwellings, their mother hung thin sliced meats upon long willow racks.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	fed	feed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
6	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	played	play	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
8	about	about	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	digging	dig	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	make	make	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	believe	believe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
15	dwellings	dwelling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	sliced	slice	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	meats	meat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
23	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	willow	willow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	racks	rack	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feed** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **play about** | participle · passive |  | the fed children |  |  |  | about *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **dig** | gerund |  | little make |  |  |  |  | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent make=Theme |
| 4 | **believe** | infinitive |  | dwellings |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dwelling=Stimulus |
| 5 | **hang** | past | children's mother | thin sliced meats |  | long willow racks |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent meat=Theme upon rack=Destination |
| 6 | **slice** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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