The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Little Friend Coyote, sentence 19
She began her preparations at once, and only laughed at her parents when they urged her to remain with them, telling her that the plains swarmed with war parties in search of scalps and plunder, and that she would surely be killed.
Who acts: Su, preparations · What happens: begin, laugh, urge, remain, tell, swarm · To what, where: preparations, Su, plains, search, scalps · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (Su, preparations), 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 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 began | nsubj |
| 2 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 4 preparations | nmod:poss |
| 4 | preparations | preparation | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 began | obj |
| 5 | at | at | ADP | _ | 6 once | case |
| 6 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 2 began | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 laughed | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 laughed | cc |
| 9 | only | only | ADV | _ | 10 laughed | advmod |
| 10 | laughed | laugh | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 began | conj |
| 11 | at | at | ADP | _ | 13 parents | case |
| 12 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 parents | nmod:poss |
| 13 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 laughed | obl |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 16 urged | advmod |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 urged | nsubj |
| 16 | urged | urge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 laughed | advcl |
| 17 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 urged | iobj |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 remain | mark |
| 19 | remain | remain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 urged | xcomp |
| 20 | with | with | ADP | _ | 21 them | case |
| 21 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 remain | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 telling | punct |
| 23 | telling | tell | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 remain | advcl |
| 24 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 telling | iobj |
| 25 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 45 killed | mark |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 plains | det |
| 27 | plains | plain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 45 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 28 | swarmed | swarm | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 27 plains | acl |
| 29 | with | with | ADP | _ | 31 parties | case |
| 30 | war | war | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 parties | compound |
| 31 | parties | party | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 swarmed | obl:agent |
| 32 | in | in | ADP | _ | 33 search | case |
| 33 | search | search | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 swarmed | obl |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 35 scalps | case |
| 35 | scalps | scalp | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 search | nmod |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 plunder | cc |
| 37 | plunder | plunder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 scalps | conj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 killed | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 killed | cc |
| 40 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 45 killed | mark |
| 41 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 42 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 45 killed | aux |
| 43 | surely | surely | ADV | _ | 45 killed | advmod |
| 44 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 45 killed | aux:pass |
| 45 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 23 telling | ccomp |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 began | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | begin | past | Su | Su's preparations | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent preparation=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | laugh | past | Su not said here | at Su's parents | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | urge | past | preparations = preparation | Su | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 4 | remain not said to happen | to-infinitive | preparations = preparation not said here | with preparations = preparation | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | tell speech: assert | gerund | preparations = preparation not said here | Su | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 6 | swarm | participle | the plains not said here | search of scalps and plunder | war parties obl:agent | vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in search=Location | |||
| 7 | kill | would · passive | the plains | Su nsubj:pass; surely property | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 8 | prepare | Su | nom preparation «act transitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 9 | search | scalps and plunder | nom search «act transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg66596/18/19/