The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Bluejay Stories, sentence 8

Most of the stories to be related here are very old, and date from a period when men and animals were far more closely related than they seem to be to-day; when, as the tales clearly show, each could understand the other’s language, and when friendly intercourse between them was common.

Who acts: Most stories, men, stories, tales, each, friendly intercourse · What happens: relate, be, seem, show, understand · To what, where: language · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Bluejay Stories. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Most stories, men, stories, tales), 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	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 stories	amod
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 stories	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stories	det
4	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 old	nsubj
5	to	to	PART	_	7 related	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 related	aux:pass
7	related	relate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 stories	acl
8	here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 related	advmod
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 old	cop
10	very	very	ADV	_	11 old	advmod
11	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 date	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 date	cc
14	date	date	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 old	conj
15	from	from	ADP	_	17 period	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 period	det
17	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 date	nmod
18	when	when	SCONJ	_	26 related	mark
19	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 related	nsubj
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 animals	cc
21	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 men	conj
22	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 related	cop
23	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	24 more	advmod
24	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	25 closely	advmod
25	closely	closely	ADV	_	26 related	advmod
26	related	related	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 date	acl
27	than	than	SCONJ	_	29 seem	mark
28	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 seem	nsubj
29	seem	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	26 related	advcl
30	to	to	PART	_	34 day	mark
31	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	34 day	cop
32	to	to	ADP	_	34 day	case
33	-	-	PUNCT	_	32 to	punct
34	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 seem	xcomp
35	;	;	PUNCT	_	42 show	punct
36	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	42 show	advmod
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 tales	punct
38	as	as	ADP	_	40 tales	case
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 tales	det
40	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 show	nsubj
41	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	42 show	advmod
42	show	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 old	parataxis
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 understand	punct
44	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	46 understand	nsubj
45	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	46 understand	aux
46	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	42 show	ccomp
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 other	det
48	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	50 language	nmod:poss
49	’s	's	PART	_	48 other	case
50	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 understand	obj
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 common	punct
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 common	cc
53	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	59 common	advmod
54	friendly	friendly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	55 intercourse	amod
55	intercourse	intercourse	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 common	nsubj
56	between	between	ADP	_	57 them	case
57	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 intercourse	nmod
58	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	59 common	cop
59	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 old	conj
60	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 old	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relate	to-infinitive · passive	the Most stories not said here		here			vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»
2	is	present	the Most stories				date from a period conj; old property	tree rules
3	is	past	men and animals				closely, related property	tree rules
4	seem	present	stories = story					vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme
5	is	to-infinitive	stories = story not said here			to day		tree rules
6	show	present	the tales				clearly property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
7	understand	could	each	the other's language				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus
8	is	past	friendly intercourse between stories				common 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/pg66596/3/8/

🌲 The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Bluejay Stories, sentence 8

The tree

Pragmatics

The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Bluejay Stories, sentence 8