---
title: It seemed as if night would never come, and then as if the people wo… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed as if night would never come, and then as if the people would never stop talking and feasting and go to bed. Who acts: It, people. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Little Friend Coyote, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Little Friend Coyote, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed as if night would never come, and then as if the people would never stop talking and feasting and go to bed.

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**Who acts:** It, people · **What happens:** seem, not come, not stop, talk, go · **To what, where:** bed

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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 (It, people), 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:pg66596:18:76
# text = It seemed as if night would never come, and then as if the people would never stop talking and feasting and go to bed.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
19	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	feasting	feasting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **not** **come** *a condition, not said to happen* | would |  |  |  |  | night |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **stop** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | the people |  |  |  | then |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **talk** | gerund | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | feasting *conj* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **go** | infinitive | the people *not said here* |  |  | bed |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bed=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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