The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, A Bluejay Story, sentence 198
Bluejay often went along the beach trying to find food, but he was always unlucky, for he found nothing, and often, while he was looking, suddenly it would begin to hail—big hailstones.
Who acts: Bluejay, food · What happens: go, try, find, be, look, begin · To what, where: food, nothing, big hailstones
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, A Bluejay Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bluejay, food), 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 | Bluejay | Bluejay | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 went | nsubj |
| 2 | often | often | ADV | _ | 3 went | advmod |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | along | along | ADP | _ | 6 beach | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 beach | det |
| 6 | beach | beach | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 went | obl |
| 7 | trying | try | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 3 went | xcomp |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 find | mark |
| 9 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 trying | xcomp |
| 10 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 find | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 unlucky | punct |
| 12 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 16 unlucky | cc |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 unlucky | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 unlucky | cop |
| 15 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 16 unlucky | advmod |
| 16 | unlucky | unlucky | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 went | parataxis |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 found | punct |
| 18 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 20 found | mark |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 found | nsubj |
| 20 | found | find | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | conj |
| 21 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 20 found | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 often | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 often | cc |
| 24 | often | often | ADV | _ | 20 found | advmod |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 looking | punct |
| 26 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 29 looking | mark |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 looking | nsubj |
| 28 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 looking | aux |
| 29 | looking | look | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 20 found | advcl |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 begin | punct |
| 31 | suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 34 begin | advmod |
| 32 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 begin | nsubj |
| 33 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 34 begin | aux |
| 34 | begin | begin | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 looking | advcl |
| 35 | to | to | PART | _ | 36 hail | mark |
| 36 | hail | hail | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 begin | xcomp |
| 37 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 39 hailstones | punct |
| 38 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 hailstones | amod |
| 39 | hailstones | hailstone | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 hail | obj |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | Bluejay | along the beach; often property | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | try | gerund | Bluejay not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | find not said to happen | to-infinitive | Bluejay not said here | food | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Topic | ||||
| 4 | is | past | Bluejay | always, unlucky property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | find | past | Bluejay | nothing | often property | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic | |||
| 6 | look | past · progressive | Bluejay | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | |||||
| 7 | begin | would | food | suddenly property | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 8 | hail | to-infinitive | food not said here | big hailstones | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hailstone=Theme |
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.
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