---
title: This was an athletic contest between pairs of young men, and tested… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: This was an athletic contest between pairs of young men, and tested their fleetness, their eyesight, and their skill in throwing the stick. Who acts: This, skill. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Little Friend Coyote, with its dependency
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Little Friend Coyote, sentence 149

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This was an athletic contest between pairs of young men, and tested their fleetness, their eyesight, and their skill in throwing the stick.

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**Who acts:** This, skill · **What happens:** be, test, throw · **To what, where:** athletic contest, fleetness, stick

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Little Friend Coyote. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, skill), 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:pg66596:18:149
# text = This was an athletic contest between pairs of young men, and tested their fleetness, their eyesight, and their skill in throwing the stick.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	athletic	athletic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	contest	contest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	between	between	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	pairs	pair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	tested	test	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	fleetness	fleetness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	eyesight	eyesight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
23	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | a athletic contest |  |  |  | between pairs of young men | tree rules |
| 2 | **test** | past |  | games's fleetness and games's eyesight |  |  |  | games's skill *conj* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fleetness=Theme |
| 3 | **throw** | gerund | games's skill *not said here* | the stick |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |

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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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