---
title: At last Nothing Child asked him if he would promise never again to d… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: At last Nothing Child asked him if he would promise never again to drive the buffalo away from the people. Who acts: Child, raven. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Nothing Child, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Nothing Child, sentence 183

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last Nothing Child asked him if he would promise never again to drive the buffalo away from the people.

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**Who acts:** Child, raven · **What happens:** ask, promise, drive · **To what, where:** raven, last Nothing, buffalo

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Nothing Child. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Child, raven), 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:pg66596:15:183
# text = At last Nothing Child asked him if he would promise never again to drive the buffalo away from the people.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Nothing	Nothing	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	Child	Child	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
11	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	again	again	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Child |  | raven | last Nothing |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* *a condition, not said to happen* | would | raven |  |  |  | again; never |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **drive** | to-infinitive | raven *not said here* | the buffalo |  |  |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme buffalo=Trajectory |

<!-- .note -->
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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