---
title: Rubbing it first on the grass and then on a piece of deerskin, he mu… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Rubbing it first on the grass and then on a piece of deerskin, he muttered indistinct words all the while. Who acts: Iktomi. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Old Indian Legends, The Tree-bound, sentence 107

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Rubbing it first on the grass and then on a piece of deerskin, he muttered indistinct words all the while.

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**Who acts:** Iktomi · **What happens:** rub, mutter · **To what, where:** arrow, grass, indistinct words

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This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Iktomi), 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:pg338:8:107
# text = Rubbing it first on the grass and then on a piece of deerskin, he muttered indistinct words all the while.
1	Rubbing	rub	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	1	advmod	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	deerskin	deerskin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	muttered	mutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	indistinct	indistinct	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rub** | gerund | Iktomi *not said here* | arrow |  | the grass and a piece of deerskin |  | first *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on grass=Destination |
| 2 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | past | Iktomi | indistinct words |  |  | while |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Topic |

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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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