---
title: Looking backward, a few paces from the young woman, he waved his han… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Looking backward, a few paces from the young woman, he waved his hand, upward and downward, before her face. Who acts: spirit. 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 142

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Looking backward, a few paces from the young woman, he waved his hand, upward and downward, before her face.

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**Who acts:** spirit · **What happens:** look, wave · **To what, where:** few paces, hand

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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 (spirit), 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:pg338:8:142
# text = Looking backward, a few paces from the young woman, he waved his hand, upward and downward, before her face.
1	Looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
2	backward	backward	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	paces	pace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	waved	wave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	downward	downward	ADV	RB	_	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	before	before	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | gerund | spirit *not said here* | a few paces from the young woman |  |  |  | backward *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **wave** | past | spirit | spirit's hand |  |  | before toss's face | upward *property* | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |

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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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