---
title: He took a large buffalo chip and placed it in the dish, and began to… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: He took a large buffalo chip and placed it in the dish, and began to break it up into fine pieces, singing, as he did so, a strange song. Who acts: chief. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Beaver Stick, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Beaver Stick, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took a large buffalo chip and placed it in the dish, and began to break it up into fine pieces, singing, as he did so, a strange song.

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**Who acts:** chief · **What happens:** take, place, begin, break up, sing, do · **To what, where:** large buffalo chip, chip, dish, strange song, fine pieces

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (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:pg66596:17:69
# text = He took a large buffalo chip and placed it in the dish, and began to break it up into fine pieces, singing, as he did so, a strange song.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	chip	chip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | chief | a large buffalo chip |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chip=Theme |
| 2 | **place** | past | chief *not said here* | chip |  | the dish |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in dish=Destination |
| 3 | **begin** | past | chief *not said here* | a strange song |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **break up** | to-infinitive | chief *not said here* | chip |  |  |  | into fine pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent it=Patient into piece=Result |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **do** | past | chief |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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