---
title: He had an old flint knife, but its edge was so ragged and blunted th… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: He had an old flint knife, but its edge was so ragged and blunted that it would scarcely cut a piece of boiled meat. Who acts: Robe, edge. 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 
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Beaver Stick, sentence 7

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He had an old flint knife, but its edge was so ragged and blunted that it would scarcely cut a piece of boiled meat.

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**Who acts:** Robe, edge · **What happens:** have, be, blunt, cut, boil · **To what, where:** old flint knife, piece

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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 (Robe, edge), 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:pg66596:17:7
# text = He had an old flint knife, but its edge was so ragged and blunted that it would scarcely cut a piece of boiled meat.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	flint	flint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	ragged	ragged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	blunted	blunt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
25	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Robe | a old flint knife |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | knife's edge |  |  |  |  | ragged *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **blunt** | past | Robe *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **cut** | would | edge | a piece of boiled meat |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material piece=Product |
| 5 | **boil** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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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