---
title: He told them not to be anxious about him, and not to say anything ab… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: He told them not to be anxious about him, and not to say anything about his having been away. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Grizzly Bear’s Medicine, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Grizzly Bear’s Medicine, sentence 121

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He told them not to be anxious about him, and not to say anything about his having been away.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** tell, not be, not say, be · **To what, where:** things, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Grizzly Bear’s Medicine. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66596:10:121
# text = He told them not to be anxious about him, and not to say anything about his having been away.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
15	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	obj	_	_
16	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
18	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	aux	_	_
19	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	15	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | boy |  | things *= thing* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about boy; anxious *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | gerund · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | boy *nmod:poss*; away *property* | tree rules |

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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.

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**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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