---
title: At gray dawn there stood indistinct under the shadow of the bluff ma… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: At gray dawn there stood indistinct under the shadow of the bluff many human figures; silent as ghosts and wrapped in robes girdled tight about their waists, they waited with chosen bow and arrow. Who acts: men. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound, with its dependency tr
---

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# Old Indian Legends, The Tree-bound, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At gray dawn there stood indistinct under the shadow of the bluff many human figures; silent as ghosts and wrapped in robes girdled tight about their waists, they waited with chosen bow and arrow.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** stand, wrap, girdle, wait, choose, shadow · **To what, where:** shadow, robes, bluff

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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 (men), 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:pg338:8:21
# text = At gray dawn there stood indistinct under the shadow of the bluff many human figures; silent as ghosts and wrapped in robes girdled tight about their waists, they waited with chosen bow and arrow.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	indistinct	indistinct	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
7	under	under	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	bluff	bluff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	figures	figure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
17	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	robes	robe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
24	girdled	girdle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
25	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	waists	waist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	amod	_	_
34	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	arrow	arrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  |  |  | the shadow of the bluff  many human figures; there | dawn | indistinct *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under shadow=Location |
| 2 | **wrap** | participle |  |  |  | robes |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in robe=Destination |
| 3 | **girdle** | participle |  | robes *not said here* |  |  |  | about robes's waists; tight *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wait** | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | with chosen bow and arrow | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **choose** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **shadow** |  |  | the bluff  many human figures |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: of=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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