---
title: As he sat on the ground, he was wondering what he should do next. — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: As he sat on the ground, he was wondering what he should do next. Who acts: voice. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The First Medicine Lodge, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The First Medicine Lodge, sentence 38

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As he sat on the ground, he was wondering what he should do next.

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**Who acts:** voice · **What happens:** sit, wonder, do · **To what, where:** ground

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The First Medicine Lodge. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voice), 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:pg66596:11:38
# text = As he sat on the ground, he was wondering what he should do next.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
15	next	next	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | voice |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 2 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past · progressive | voice |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** | should | voice |  |  |  |  | what *obj*; next *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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