The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Beaver Stick, sentence 80
On its surface floated a short piece of beaver cutting which seemed very old and quite water-soaked; yet it did not sink, nor, like other pieces of wood, finally float out on the current constantly entering and going out of the doorway.
Who acts: beaver, short piece, door, current · What happens: float, cut, seem, soak, not sink, float out · To what, where: short piece, surface, doorway
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 (beaver, short piece, door, current), 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 | On | on | ADP | _ | 3 surface | case |
| 2 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 surface | nmod:poss |
| 3 | surface | surface | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 floated | obl |
| 4 | floated | float | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 piece | det |
| 6 | short | short | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 piece | amod |
| 7 | piece | piece | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 floated | obj |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 beaver | case |
| 9 | beaver | beaver | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 piece | nmod |
| 10 | cutting | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 9 beaver | acl |
| 11 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 seemed | nsubj |
| 12 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 piece | acl:relcl |
| 13 | very | very | ADV | _ | 14 old | advmod |
| 14 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 seemed | xcomp |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 quite | cc |
| 16 | quite | quite | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 old | conj |
| 17 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 soaked | compound |
| 18 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 17 water | punct |
| 19 | soaked | soak | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 quite | conj |
| 20 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 25 sink | punct |
| 21 | yet | yet | CCONJ | _ | 25 sink | cc |
| 22 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 sink | nsubj |
| 23 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 sink | aux |
| 24 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 25 sink | advmod |
| 25 | sink | sink | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 floated | conj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 pieces | punct |
| 27 | nor | nor | CCONJ | Polarity=Neg | 31 pieces | cc |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 nor | punct |
| 29 | like | like | ADP | _ | 31 pieces | case |
| 30 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 pieces | amod |
| 31 | pieces | piece | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 floated | obl |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 wood | case |
| 33 | wood | wood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 pieces | nmod |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 float | punct |
| 35 | finally | finally | ADV | _ | 36 float | advmod |
| 36 | float | float | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 floated | conj |
| 37 | out | out | ADP | _ | 36 float | compound:prt |
| 38 | on | on | SCONJ | _ | 42 entering | mark |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 current | det |
| 40 | current | current | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 entering | nsubj |
| 41 | constantly | constantly | ADV | _ | 42 entering | advmod |
| 42 | entering | enter | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 36 float | advcl |
| 43 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 44 going | cc |
| 44 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 42 entering | conj |
| 45 | out | out | ADP | _ | 48 doorway | case |
| 46 | of | of | ADP | _ | 48 doorway | case |
| 47 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 48 doorway | det |
| 48 | doorway | doorway | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 going | obl |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 floated | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | float | past | a short piece of beaver | door's surface | like other pieces of wood | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent piece=Theme on surface=Trajectory | |||
| 2 | cut | gerund | beaver not said here | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | seem | past | a short piece of beaver | old property | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | soak | participle | a short piece of beaver not said here | water compound | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 5 | not sink | past · do-support | door | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 6 | float out | infinitive | finally property | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | enter | gerund | the current | constantly property | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 8 | go out | gerund | the current not said here | the doorway | tree rules |
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/pg66596/17/80/