The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Star Boy, sentence 101
All at once the boys saw a cloud rising and coming towards them, and pretty soon it began to rain where the snakes were, and the water got so deep that the snakes were swimming, but where the boys were it did not rain.
Who acts: boys, cloud, water, snakes · What happens: see, rise, come, begin, be, swim · To what, where: cloud, rain, snakes
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Star Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, cloud, water, snakes), 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 | All | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 6 saw | advmod |
| 2 | at | at | SCONJ | _ | 6 saw | mark |
| 3 | once | once | SCONJ | _ | 6 saw | mark |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 boys | det |
| 5 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 saw | nsubj |
| 6 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 cloud | det |
| 8 | cloud | cloud | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 saw | obj |
| 9 | rising | rise | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 8 cloud | acl |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 coming | cc |
| 11 | coming | come | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 9 rising | conj |
| 12 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 13 them | case |
| 13 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 coming | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 began | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 began | cc |
| 16 | pretty | pretty | ADV | _ | 17 soon | advmod |
| 17 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 19 began | advmod |
| 18 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 began | nsubj |
| 19 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 saw | conj |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 rain | mark |
| 21 | rain | rain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 began | xcomp |
| 22 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 21 rain | advmod |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 snakes | det |
| 24 | snakes | snake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 where | nsubj |
| 25 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 got | cop |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 got | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 got | cc |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 water | det |
| 29 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 got | nsubj |
| 30 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 snakes | acl |
| 31 | so | so | ADV | _ | 32 deep | advmod |
| 32 | deep | deep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 got | xcomp |
| 33 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 37 swimming | mark |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 snakes | det |
| 35 | snakes | snake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 swimming | nsubj |
| 36 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 swimming | aux |
| 37 | swimming | swim | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 32 deep | advcl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 rain | punct |
| 39 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 47 rain | cc |
| 40 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 47 rain | advmod |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 42 boys | det |
| 42 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 47 rain | nsubj |
| 43 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 47 rain | cop |
| 44 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 47 rain | nsubj |
| 45 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 47 rain | aux |
| 46 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 47 rain | advmod |
| 47 | rain | rain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 got | obl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 saw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | past | the boys | a cloud | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cloud=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | rise | gerund | a cloud not said here | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | come | gerund | a cloud not said here | towards snakes = snake | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme towards they=Initial_Location | ||||
| 4 | begin | past | cloud | rain | soon property | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | |||
| 5 | is | past | the water | the snakes not said here | deep, get property | tree rules | |||
| 6 | swim | past · progressive | the snakes | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | not is a | past · do-support | the boys | rain | it nsubj | 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/pg66596/9/101/