The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Beaver Stick, sentence 13
They all shrieked with laughter—she who had spoken most of all—and then began to jest about him, and New Robe’s face grew hot as he heard the many unkind things they said about his appearance and his poverty.
Who acts: girls, woman, face · What happens: shriek, speak, begin, jest, grow, hear · To what, where: most, many unkind things · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Beaver Stick. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, woman, face), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 shrieked | nsubj |
| 2 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 3 shrieked | advmod |
| 3 | shrieked | shriek | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | with | with | ADP | _ | 5 laughter | case |
| 5 | laughter | laughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 shrieked | obl |
| 6 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 10 spoken | punct |
| 7 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 spoken | nsubj |
| 8 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 10 spoken | nsubj |
| 9 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 spoken | aux |
| 10 | spoken | speak | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 shrieked | parataxis |
| 11 | most | most | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 10 spoken | obj |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 all | case |
| 13 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 11 most | nmod |
| 14 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 17 began | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 began | cc |
| 16 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 17 began | advmod |
| 17 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 shrieked | parataxis |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 jest | mark |
| 19 | jest | jest | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 began | xcomp |
| 20 | about | about | ADP | _ | 21 him | case |
| 21 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 jest | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 grew | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 grew | cc |
| 24 | New | New | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 Robe | amod |
| 25 | Robe | Robe | PROPN | Number=Sing | 27 face | nmod:poss |
| 26 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 25 Robe | case |
| 27 | face | face | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 grew | nsubj |
| 28 | grew | grow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 began | conj |
| 29 | hot | hot | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 grew | xcomp |
| 30 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 32 heard | mark |
| 31 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 heard | nsubj |
| 32 | heard | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 grew | advcl |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 things | det |
| 34 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 things | amod |
| 35 | unkind | unkind | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 things | amod |
| 36 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 heard | obj |
| 37 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 said | nsubj |
| 38 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 things | acl:relcl |
| 39 | about | about | ADP | _ | 41 appearance | case |
| 40 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 appearance | nmod:poss |
| 41 | appearance | appearance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 said | obl |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 44 poverty | cc |
| 43 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 44 poverty | nmod:poss |
| 44 | poverty | poverty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 appearance | conj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 shrieked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | shriek | past | girls = girl | with laughter | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with laughter=Theme | ||||
| 2 | speak speech: other | past · perfect | woman | most of all | who nsubj | tree rules | |||
| 3 | begin | past | then | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | jest speech: other | to-infinitive | about Robe | vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about he=Topic | |||||
| 5 | grow | past | New Robe's face | hot property | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 6 | hear | past | face | the many unkind things | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus | ||||
| 7 | say speech: assert | past | girls = girl | the many unkind things not said here | about Robe's appearance and Robe's poverty | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
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/pg66596/17/13/