---
title: “'He is coming!' said the people,” muttered old Iktomi. — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “'He is coming!' said the people,” muttered old Iktomi. Who acts: eagle, old Iktomi. 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 74

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“'He is coming!' said the people,” muttered old Iktomi.

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**Who acts:** eagle, old Iktomi · **What happens:** come, say, mutter · **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 (eagle, old Iktomi), 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:pg338:8:74
# text = “'He is coming!' said the people,” muttered old Iktomi.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
13	muttered	mutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** *in a quote* | present · progressive | eagle |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | past | old Iktomi |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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