---
title: The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb, hearing the low… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb, hearing the low muttering, said: “Iktomi, I cannot hear what you say!” Who acts: young man, you. 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 108

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The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb, hearing the low muttering, said: “Iktomi, I cannot hear what you say!”

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**Who acts:** young man, you · **What happens:** step, limb, hear, say, not hear · **To what, where:** limb, low muttering · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (young man, you), 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:pg338:8:108
# text = The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb, hearing the low muttering, said: “Iktomi, I cannot hear what you say!”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	stepping	step	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	downward	downward	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	limb	limb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	limb	limb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	muttering	muttering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	obj	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step** | gerund | the young man *not said here* | limb |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location limb=Theme |
| 2 | **limb** | to-infinitive | the young man *not said here* | limb *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | gerund | the young man *not said here* | the low muttering |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer muttering=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the young man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **hear** *in a quote* | can | the young man *= man* |  |  |  |  | Iktomi *vocative* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

<!-- .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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