The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Star Boy, sentence 2

As they lay there before they went to sleep, they were talking about the different stars that they saw in the sky above them, saying how pretty they were.

Who acts: girls · What happens: lie, go, talk, see, say, be · To what, where: sleep, different stars, sky · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (girls), 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	As	as	SCONJ	_	3 lay	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 lay	nsubj
3	lay	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 lay	advmod
5	before	before	SCONJ	_	7 went	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 went	nsubj
7	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 lay	advcl
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 sleep	case
9	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 went	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 talking	punct
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 talking	nsubj
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 talking	aux
13	talking	talk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 lay	advcl
14	about	about	ADP	_	17 stars	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 stars	det
16	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 stars	amod
17	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 talking	obl
18	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 saw	obj
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 saw	nsubj
20	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 stars	acl:relcl
21	in	in	ADP	_	23 sky	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 sky	det
23	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 saw	obl
24	above	above	ADP	_	25 them	case
25	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 sky	nmod
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 saying	punct
27	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 talking	conj
28	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	29 pretty	advmod
29	pretty	pretty	ADV	_	27 saying	advmod
30	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 were	nsubj
31	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 pretty	advcl
32	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 lay	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	lie	past	girls = girl		there		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	go	past	girls = girl		sleep		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to sleep=Initial_Location
3	talk	past · progressive	girls = girl			about the different stars	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about star=Topic
4	see	past	girls = girl	the different stars	the sky above stars		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus
5	say speech: assert	gerund	girls = girl not said here			pretty property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
6	be	past	girls = girl				vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg66596/9/2/

🌲 The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Star Boy, sentence 2

The tree

Pragmatics

The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Star Boy, sentence 2