The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The First Corn, sentence 20
They travelled many days, and passed over broad prairies and then across high mountains and then over high, wide plains and over other mountains until they came to the end of the world, where the sky bends down and touches the ground.
Who acts: shield, sky · What happens: travel, pass, come, bend down, touch · To what, where: broad prairies, end, ground
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The First Corn. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shield, sky), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 travelled | nsubj |
| 2 | travelled | travel | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 days | amod |
| 4 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 travelled | obj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 passed | punct |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 passed | cc |
| 7 | passed | pass | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 travelled | conj |
| 8 | over | over | ADP | _ | 10 prairies | case |
| 9 | broad | broad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 prairies | amod |
| 10 | prairies | prairie | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 passed | obl |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 mountains | cc |
| 12 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 15 mountains | advmod |
| 13 | across | across | ADP | _ | 15 mountains | case |
| 14 | high | high | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 mountains | amod |
| 15 | mountains | mountain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 prairies | conj |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 plains | cc |
| 17 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 22 plains | advmod |
| 18 | over | over | ADP | _ | 22 plains | case |
| 19 | high | high | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 plains | amod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 high | punct |
| 21 | wide | wide | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 plains | amod |
| 22 | plains | plain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 prairies | conj |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 mountains | cc |
| 24 | over | over | ADP | _ | 26 mountains | case |
| 25 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 mountains | amod |
| 26 | mountains | mountain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 plains | conj |
| 27 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 29 came | mark |
| 28 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 came | nsubj |
| 29 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 passed | advcl |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 32 end | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 end | det |
| 32 | end | end | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 came | obl |
| 33 | of | of | ADP | _ | 35 world | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 world | det |
| 35 | world | world | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 end | nmod |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 bends | punct |
| 37 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 40 bends | advmod |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 sky | det |
| 39 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 bends | nsubj |
| 40 | bends | bend | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 came | parataxis |
| 41 | down | down | ADV | _ | 40 bends | advmod |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 touches | cc |
| 43 | touches | touch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 40 bends | conj |
| 44 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 ground | det |
| 45 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 touches | obj |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 travelled | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | travel | past | shield | day | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | pass | participle | shield not said here | broad prairies and high mountains and high wide plains and other mountains | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over prairie=Location | ||||
| 3 | come | past | shield | to the end of the world | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to end=Initial_Location | ||||
| 4 | bend down | present | the sky | down property | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | touch | present | the sky not said here | the ground | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-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/pg66596/8/20/