---
title: I wish I could talk to him; I would like to tell him some things tha… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: I wish I could talk to him; I would like to tell him some things that would be for his good.” Who acts: I, things. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Beaver Stick, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Beaver Stick, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I wish I could talk to him; I would like to tell him some things that would be for his good.”

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**Who acts:** I, things · **What happens:** wish, talk, like, tell, be · **To what, where:** man, things · **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 Beaver Stick. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, things), 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:pg66596:17:18
# text = I wish I could talk to him; I would like to tell him some things that would be for his good.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **talk** | could | I |  | man |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **like** | would | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | some things | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient thing=Topic |
| 5 | **is** | would | some things |  |  |  |  | man *nmod:poss*; good *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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