---
title: He answered, “A Snake.” — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: He answered, “A Snake.” Who acts: son. 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 54

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He answered, “A Snake.”

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** answer

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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 (son), 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:pg66596:16:54
# text = He answered, “A Snake.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | son |  |  |  |  | a Snake *ccomp* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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