---
title: They were talking of a strange young man whom they spied while out u… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They were talking of a strange young man whom they spied while out upon a hunt for deer beyond the bluffs. Who acts: hunters. 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 40

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They were talking of a strange young man whom they spied while out upon a hunt for deer beyond the bluffs.

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**Who acts:** hunters · **What happens:** talk, spy · **To what, where:** strange young man

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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 (hunters), 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:pg338:8:40
# text = They were talking of a strange young man whom they spied while out upon a hunt for deer beyond the bluffs.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	out	out	ADV	RB	_	11	advcl	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	hunt	hunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	deer	deer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
19	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bluffs	bluff	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | hunters *= hunter* |  |  |  |  | of a strange young man | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **spy** | past | hunters *= hunter* | a strange young man |  |  |  | upon a hunt; for deer; beyond the bluffs | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer whom=Stimulus |

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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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