---
title: In a little ravine near by there was an old wolf den; she crawled do… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: In a little ravine near by there was an old wolf den; she crawled down into it, feet foremost, first carefully obliterating her footsteps in the soft, loose earth about it. Who acts: old wolf den, den. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Li
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Little Friend Coyote, sentence 93

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In a little ravine near by there was an old wolf den; she crawled down into it, feet foremost, first carefully obliterating her footsteps in the soft, loose earth about it.

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**Who acts:** old wolf den, den · **What happens:** be, crawl down, obliterate · **To what, where:** little ravine, foremost, ravine, footsteps, soft loose earth

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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 (old wolf den, den), 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:pg66596:18:93
# text = In a little ravine near by there was an old wolf den; she crawled down into it, feet foremost, first carefully obliterating her footsteps in the soft, loose earth about it.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	ravine	ravine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	near	near	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
16	down	down	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	foremost	foremost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	25	advmod	_	_
24	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	obliterating	obliterate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
30	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
34	about	about	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a old wolf den |  |  | a little ravine; there |  | near *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ravine=Location |
| 2 | **crawl down** | past | den | foremost  feet |  | ravine |  | down *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into it=Destination |
| 3 | **obliterate** | gerund | den *not said here* | two's footsteps |  | the soft loose earth about earth |  | carefully, first *property* | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent footstep=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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