The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Little Friend Coyote, sentence 120
Sometimes it would be a small trickling stream in a coulée; sometimes a soft, damp gravel-bed, where she was obliged to scoop out a hole; sometimes it was a muddy buffalo-wallow—and it was always strong with alkali—but it was the best there was.
Who acts: water · What happens: be, oblige, scoop out · To what, where: small trickling stream, coulée, pi, hole, muddy buffalo wallow
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Little Friend Coyote. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water), 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 | Sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 8 stream | advmod |
| 2 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 stream | nsubj |
| 3 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 stream | aux |
| 4 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 8 stream | cop |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 stream | det |
| 6 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 stream | amod |
| 7 | trickling | trickling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 stream | compound |
| 8 | stream | stream | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 9 | in | in | ADP | _ | 11 coulée | case |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 coulée | det |
| 11 | coulée | coulée | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 stream | nmod |
| 12 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 20 bed | punct |
| 13 | sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 20 bed | advmod |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 bed | det |
| 15 | soft | soft | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 bed | amod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 soft | punct |
| 17 | damp | damp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 bed | amod |
| 18 | gravel | gravel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 bed | compound |
| 19 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 18 gravel | punct |
| 20 | bed | bed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 stream | conj |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 obliged | punct |
| 22 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 25 obliged | advmod |
| 23 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 obliged | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 obliged | aux:pass |
| 25 | obliged | oblige | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 bed | conj |
| 26 | to | to | PART | _ | 27 scoop | mark |
| 27 | scoop | scoop | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 obliged | xcomp |
| 28 | out | out | ADP | _ | 27 scoop | compound:prt |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 hole | det |
| 30 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 scoop | obj |
| 31 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 39 wallow | punct |
| 32 | sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 39 wallow | advmod |
| 33 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 wallow | nsubj |
| 34 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 39 wallow | cop |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 39 wallow | det |
| 36 | muddy | muddy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 wallow | amod |
| 37 | buffalo | buffalo | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 wallow | compound |
| 38 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 37 buffalo | punct |
| 39 | wallow | wallow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 obliged | parataxis |
| 40 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 45 strong | punct |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 strong | cc |
| 42 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 strong | nsubj |
| 43 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 strong | cop |
| 44 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 45 strong | advmod |
| 45 | strong | strong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 wallow | conj |
| 46 | with | with | ADP | _ | 47 alkali | case |
| 47 | alkali | alkali | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 strong | obl |
| 48 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 53 best | punct |
| 49 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 53 best | cc |
| 50 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 53 best | nsubj |
| 51 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 53 best | cop |
| 52 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 53 best | det |
| 53 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 45 strong | conj |
| 54 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 55 was | expl |
| 55 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 53 best | acl:relcl |
| 56 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 stream | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | would | water | a small trickling stream and a soft damp gravel bed | a coulée | a soft damp gravel bed conj; sometimes property | tree rules | ||
| 2 | oblige | past · passive | pi | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result | |||||
| 3 | scoop out | to-infinitive | a hole | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hole=Theme | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | water | a muddy buffalo wallow | sometimes property | tree rules | |||
| 5 | is | past | water | with alkali; always, strong property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | is | past | water | good property | 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/pg66596/18/120/