The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Nothing Child, sentence 89
The old woman laughed when he asked her this, but she was very fond of him, so she tied a string to a deer’s rib for a bow and made him some little arrows, and he set out to kill the eagle.
Who acts: old woman, man, woman · What happens: laugh, ask, be, tie, make, set out · To what, where: this, woman, string, little arrows, man, eagle
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 (old woman, man, woman), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 woman | det |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 woman | amod |
| 3 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 laughed | nsubj |
| 4 | laughed | laugh | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 7 asked | advmod |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 asked | nsubj |
| 7 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 laughed | advcl |
| 8 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 asked | iobj |
| 9 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 7 asked | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 fond | punct |
| 11 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 15 fond | cc |
| 12 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 fond | nsubj |
| 13 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 fond | cop |
| 14 | very | very | ADV | _ | 15 fond | advmod |
| 15 | fond | fond | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 asked | conj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 him | case |
| 17 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 fond | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 tied | punct |
| 19 | so | so | ADV | _ | 21 tied | advmod |
| 20 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 tied | nsubj |
| 21 | tied | tie | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 laughed | conj |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 string | det |
| 23 | string | string | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 tied | obj |
| 24 | to | to | ADP | _ | 28 rib | case |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 deer | det |
| 26 | deer | deer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 rib | nmod:poss |
| 27 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 26 deer | case |
| 28 | rib | rib | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 tied | obl |
| 29 | for | for | ADP | _ | 31 bow | case |
| 30 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 31 bow | det |
| 31 | bow | bow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 tied | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 made | cc |
| 33 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 laughed | conj |
| 34 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 made | obj |
| 35 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 arrows | det |
| 36 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 arrows | amod |
| 37 | arrows | arrow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 made | obj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 set | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 set | cc |
| 40 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 set | nsubj |
| 41 | set | set | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 laughed | conj |
| 42 | out | out | ADP | _ | 41 set | compound:prt |
| 43 | to | to | PART | _ | 44 kill | mark |
| 44 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 41 set | xcomp |
| 45 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 eagle | det |
| 46 | eagle | eagle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 kill | obj |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 laughed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | laugh | past | the old woman | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask | past | man | this | woman | tree rules | |||
| 3 | is | past | woman | of man; fond property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | tie | past | woman | a string | to a deer's rib; for a bow | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent string=Patient to rib=Co-Patient | |||
| 5 | make | past | the old woman not said here | some little arrows | man | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary arrow=Product | |||
| 6 | set out | past | man | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 7 | kill | to-infinitive | man not said here | the eagle | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eagle=Theme |
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/pg66596/15/89/