---
title: In vain tried the chieftain of the tribe to find among his warriors… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: In vain tried the chieftain of the tribe to find among his warriors a powerful marksman who could send a death arrow to the man-hungry bird. Who acts: powerful marksman. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/17/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Old Indian Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/) / [The Tree-bound](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/) / 17

# Old Indian Legends, The Tree-bound, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In vain tried the chieftain of the tribe to find among his warriors a powerful marksman who could send a death arrow to the man-hungry bird.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** powerful marksman · **What happens:** try, find, send · **To what, where:** chieftain, vain, death arrow, hungry bird

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (powerful marksman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg338:8:17
# text = In vain tried the chieftain of the tribe to find among his warriors a powerful marksman who could send a death arrow to the man-hungry bird.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	chieftain	chieftain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
11	among	among	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	warriors	warrior	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	marksman	marksman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	arrow	arrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past |  | the chieftain of the tribe |  | vain |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chieftain=Eventuality |
| 2 | **find** | to-infinitive |  | the chieftain of the tribe *not said here* |  |  |  | among eagle's warriors | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **send** | could | a powerful marksman | a death arrow | the hungry bird |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent arrow=Theme to bird=Destination |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/16/)
- next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/18/)
- ↑ back to [The Tree-bound](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/)