The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Nothing Child, sentence 171

Nothing Child sent word back that this was a hard thing he was asked to do; he feared he could not do it, but he would try.

Who acts: Nothing Child, this, son · What happens: send back, be, ask, do, fear, not do · To what, where: word, hard thing, son, prairie · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Nothing Child. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing Child, this, son), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 Child	compound
2	Child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sent	nsubj
3	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sent	obj
5	back	back	ADV	_	3 sent	advmod
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 thing	mark
7	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 thing	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 thing	cop
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 thing	det
10	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 thing	amod
11	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sent	advcl
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 asked	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 asked	aux:pass
14	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 thing	acl:relcl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 do	mark
16	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 asked	xcomp
17	;	;	PUNCT	_	19 feared	punct
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 feared	nsubj
19	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 sent	conj
20	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 do	nsubj
21	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	23 do	aux
22	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	23 do	advmod
23	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 feared	ccomp
24	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 do	obj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 try	punct
26	but	but	CCONJ	_	29 try	cc
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 try	nsubj
28	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 try	aux
29	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 sent	parataxis
30	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 sent	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	send back	past	Nothing Child	word	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	is a	past	this	a hard thing	tree rules
3	ask speech: ask	past · passive		son	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
4	do not said to happen	to-infinitive	son not said here		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	fear	past	son		vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
6	not do	could	son	prairie	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality
7	try	would	son		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

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.

Text: «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Project Gutenberg book 66596 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/15/171/

🌲 The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Nothing Child, sentence 171

The tree

Pragmatics

The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Nothing Child, sentence 171