---
title: False to his promise the fox will prove, And fickle as snow in Wo-kâ… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: False to his promise the fox will prove, And fickle as snow in Wo-kâ-da-weè, [37] That slips into brooks when the gray cloud lifts, Or the red sun looks through the ragged rifts. Who acts: fox, That, red sun, Mâh. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Heyóka Wacípee [16]
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/7/116/)

<!-- 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/) / [Legends of the Northwest](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/) / [Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/7/) / 116

# Legends of the Northwest, Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance., sentence 116

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
False to his promise the fox will prove, And fickle as snow in Wo-kâ-da-weè, \[37\] That slips into brooks when the gray cloud lifts, Or the red sun looks through the ragged rifts.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fox, That, red sun, Mâh · **What happens:** prove, slip, look, promise · **To what, where:** kâ da weè, gray cloud lifts, brooks

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, That, red sun, Mâh), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8122:7:116
# text = False to his promise the fox will prove, And fickle as snow in Wo-kâ-da-weè, [37] That slips into brooks when the gray cloud lifts, Or the red sun looks through the ragged rifts.
1	False	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	fickle	fickle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Wo	Wo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	kâ	kâ	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	da	da	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	weè	weè	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	37	37	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	21	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	24	punct	_	_
26	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nsubj	_	_
27	slips	slip	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	brooks	brook	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
30	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
33	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	lifts	lift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
36	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
40	looks	look	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	parataxis	_	_
41	through	through	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	ragged	ragged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	rifts	rift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prove** | future | the fox | kâ da weè in Wo |  |  |  | to Mâh's promise; fickle *property* | vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to promise=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 2 | **slip** | present | That | the gray cloud lifts |  | brooks |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **look** | present | the red sun |  |  |  |  | through the ragged rifts | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through rift=Theme |
| 4 | **promise** |  | Mâh |  |  |  |  |  | nom promise «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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 115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/7/115/)
- next →: [sentence 117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/7/117/)
- ↑ back to [Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/7/)