The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Girl Who Was the Ring [1], sentence 157
The Buffalo would toss their heads and try to hit him with their horns, but he kept flying from one to another, and the Buffalo behind were always pushing forward to get near the ring, and they pushed the other Buffalo ahead of them.
Who acts: Buffalo, hoofs · What happens: toss, try, hit, keep, fly, push forward · To what, where: heads, Buffalo, ring, other Buffalo
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Girl Who Was the Ring [1]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Buffalo, hoofs), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Buffalo | det |
| 2 | Buffalo | Buffalo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 toss | nsubj |
| 3 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 toss | aux |
| 4 | toss | toss | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 heads | nmod:poss |
| 6 | heads | head | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 toss | obj |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 try | cc |
| 8 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 toss | conj |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 hit | mark |
| 10 | hit | hit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 try | xcomp |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 hit | obj |
| 12 | with | with | ADP | _ | 14 horns | case |
| 13 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 horns | nmod:poss |
| 14 | horns | horn | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 hit | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 kept | punct |
| 16 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 18 kept | cc |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 kept | nsubj |
| 18 | kept | keep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 toss | parataxis |
| 19 | flying | fly | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 18 kept | xcomp |
| 20 | from | from | ADP | _ | 21 one | case |
| 21 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 19 flying | obl |
| 22 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 another | case |
| 23 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 21 one | nmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 pushing | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 pushing | cc |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 Buffalo | det |
| 27 | Buffalo | Buffalo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 31 pushing | nsubj |
| 28 | behind | behind | ADP | _ | 31 pushing | mark |
| 29 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 pushing | aux |
| 30 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 31 pushing | advmod |
| 31 | pushing | push | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 18 kept | conj |
| 32 | forward | forward | ADV | _ | 31 pushing | advmod |
| 33 | to | to | PART | _ | 34 get | mark |
| 34 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 pushing | advcl |
| 35 | near | near | ADP | _ | 37 ring | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 ring | det |
| 37 | ring | ring | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 get | obl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 pushed | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 pushed | cc |
| 40 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 pushed | nsubj |
| 41 | pushed | push | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 toss | conj |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 Buffalo | det |
| 43 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 Buffalo | amod |
| 44 | Buffalo | Buffalo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 41 pushed | obj |
| 45 | ahead | ahead | ADV | _ | 41 pushed | advmod |
| 46 | of | of | ADP | _ | 47 them | case |
| 47 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 ahead | obl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 toss | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | toss | would | the Buffalo | hoofs's heads | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient | ||||
| 2 | try | infinitive | the Buffalo not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | hit not said to happen | to-infinitive | the Buffalo not said here | Buffalo | with hoofs's horns | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with horn=Instrument | |||
| 4 | keep | past | Buffalo | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | fly | gerund | Buffalo not said here | from one to another | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from one=Trajectory | ||||
| 6 | push forward | past · progressive | the Buffalo | always, forward property | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 7 | get | to-infinitive | the Buffalo not said here | the ring | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 8 | push | past | hoofs = hoof | the other Buffalo | ahead property | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent buffalo=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/157/