--- title: On its surface floated a short piece of beaver cutting which seemed… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics description: On its surface floated a short piece of beaver cutting which seemed very old and quite water-soaked; yet it did not sink, nor, like other pieces of wood, finally float out on the current constantly entering and going out of the doorway. Who acts: beaver, short piece, door, current. A sentence of «Th --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/17/80/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Punishment of the Stingy, and Othe…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/) / [The Beaver Stick](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/17/) / 80 # The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Beaver Stick, sentence 80 On its surface floated a short piece of beaver cutting which seemed very old and quite water-soaked; yet it did not sink, nor, like other pieces of wood, finally float out on the current constantly entering and going out of the doorway. **Who acts:** beaver, short piece, door, current · **What happens:** float, cut, seem, soak, not sink, float out · **To what, where:** short piece, surface, doorway 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 (beaver, short piece, door, current), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg66596:17:80 # text = On its surface floated a short piece of beaver cutting which seemed very old and quite water-soaked; yet it did not sink, nor, like other pieces of wood, finally float out on the current constantly entering and going out of the doorway. 1 On on ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 2 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 3 nmod:poss _ _ 3 surface surface NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ _ 4 floated float VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 6 short short ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 piece piece NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 8 of of ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 9 beaver beaver NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 nmod _ _ 10 cutting cut VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 9 acl _ _ 11 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 12 nsubj _ _ 12 seemed seem VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 acl:relcl _ _ 13 very very ADV RB _ 14 advmod _ _ 14 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 12 xcomp _ _ 15 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 16 quite quite ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 conj _ _ 17 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 18 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 17 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 19 soaked soak VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 16 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 20 ; ; PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 21 yet yet CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 22 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 23 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 aux _ _ 24 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 25 advmod _ _ 25 sink sink VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 27 nor nor CCONJ CC Polarity=Neg 31 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 29 like like ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 other other ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 pieces piece NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obl _ _ 32 of of ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 wood wood NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 35 finally finally ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 36 float float VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 conj _ _ 37 out out ADP RP _ 36 compound:prt _ _ 38 on on SCONJ IN _ 42 mark _ _ 39 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 40 current current NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 nsubj _ _ 41 constantly constantly ADV RB _ 42 advmod _ _ 42 entering enter VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 36 advcl _ _ 43 and and CCONJ CC _ 44 cc _ _ 44 going go VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 42 conj _ _ 45 out out ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 46 of of ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 47 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 48 det _ _ 48 doorway doorway NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **float** | past | | a short piece of beaver | | door's surface | | like other pieces of wood | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent piece=Theme on surface=Trajectory | | 2 | **cut** | gerund | beaver *not said here* | | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | | 3 | **seem** | past | a short piece of beaver | | | | | old *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **soak** | participle | a short piece of beaver *not said here* | | | | | water *compound* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | | 5 | **not** **sink** | past · do-support | door | | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | | 6 | **float out** | infinitive | | | | | | finally *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **enter** | gerund | the current | | | | | constantly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **go out** | gerund | the current *not said here* | the doorway | | | | | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/17/79/) - next →: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/17/81/) - ↑ back to [The Beaver Stick](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/17/)