---
title: The chief said: “I cannot say anything about that. — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief said: “I cannot say anything about that. Who acts: chief. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Shield Quiver’s Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Shield Quiver’s Wife, sentence 20

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The chief said: “I cannot say anything about that.

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**Who acts:** chief · **What happens:** say, not say · **To what, where:** 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, Shield Quiver’s Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief), 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:pg66596:16:20
# text = The chief said: “I cannot say anything about that.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
10	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obj	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the chief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | the chief *= chief* | anything |  |  |  | about that | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |

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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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