The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Little Friend Coyote, sentence 55
She wished that they would not delay; she wished to have the dreadful ordeal over with, so that her shadow might overtake her husband’s as it travelled along on the road to the Sandhills—home of the departed Blackfeet.
Who acts: woman, executioners, shadow · What happens: wish, not delay, have, overtake, travel, depart · To what, where: dreadful ordeal, road
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 (woman, executioners, shadow), 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 wished | nsubj |
| 2 | wished | wish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 7 delay | mark |
| 4 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 delay | nsubj |
| 5 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 delay | aux |
| 6 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 7 delay | advmod |
| 7 | delay | delay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 wished | advcl |
| 8 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 10 wished | punct |
| 9 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 wished | nsubj |
| 10 | wished | wish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 wished | parataxis |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 have | mark |
| 12 | have | have | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 wished | xcomp |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 ordeal | det |
| 14 | dreadful | dreadful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 ordeal | amod |
| 15 | ordeal | ordeal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 have | obj |
| 16 | over | over | ADV | _ | 12 have | advmod |
| 17 | with | with | ADP | _ | 12 have | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 overtake | punct |
| 19 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 24 overtake | mark |
| 20 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 19 so | fixed |
| 21 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 shadow | nmod:poss |
| 22 | shadow | shadow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 overtake | nsubj |
| 23 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 24 overtake | aux |
| 24 | overtake | overtake | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 wished | conj |
| 25 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 husband | nmod:poss |
| 26 | husband | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 ’s | nsubj |
| 27 | ’s | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 24 overtake | parataxis |
| 28 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 30 travelled | mark |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 travelled | nsubj |
| 30 | travelled | travel | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 ’s | ccomp |
| 31 | along | along | ADV | _ | 30 travelled | advmod |
| 32 | on | on | ADP | _ | 34 road | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 road | det |
| 34 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 travelled | obl |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 37 Sandhills | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 Sandhills | det |
| 37 | Sandhills | Sandhills | PROPN | Number=Sing | 34 road | nmod |
| 38 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 39 home | punct |
| 39 | home | home | ADV | _ | 24 overtake | advmod |
| 40 | of | of | ADP | _ | 43 Blackfeet | case |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 Blackfeet | det |
| 42 | departed | depart | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 43 Blackfeet | amod |
| 43 | Blackfeet | Blackfeet | PROPN | Number=Sing | 39 home | obl |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 wished | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wish | past | woman | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot | |||||
| 2 | not delay | would | executioners = executioner | vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | wish | past | woman | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | have not said to happen | to-infinitive | woman not said here | the dreadful ordeal | over property | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ordeal=Patient | |||
| 5 | overtake | might | woman's shadow | home property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | travel | past | shadow | the road to the Sandhills | along property | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on road=Trajectory | |||
| 7 | depart | participle | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 8 | shadow | woman | nom shadow «state transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg66596/18/55/