---
title: The avenger began to scale the tree, when Iktomi cried to him: “My f… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The avenger began to scale the tree, when Iktomi cried to him: “My friend, your beaded buckskins may be torn by the branches. Who acts: avenger, Iktomi, branches. 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 98

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The avenger began to scale the tree, when Iktomi cried to him: “My friend, your beaded buckskins may be torn by the branches.

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**Who acts:** avenger, Iktomi, branches · **What happens:** begin, cry, bead, tear · **To what, where:** scale, avenger, friend · **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 (avenger, Iktomi, branches), 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:pg338:8:98
# text = The avenger began to scale the tree, when Iktomi cried to him: “My friend, your beaded buckskins may be torn by the branches.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	avenger	avenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	scale	scale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	Iktomi	Iktomi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	beaded	bead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	amod	_	_
21	buckskins	buckskin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
22	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the avenger | scale |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Iktomi |  | avenger |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 3 | **bead** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 4 | **tear** *in a quote* | may · passive | the branches | My friend and your beaded buckskins |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location subject=Theme |

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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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