---
title: The bird came down, and, grasping the piece of meat, flew away. — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: The bird came down, and, grasping the piece of meat, flew away. Who acts: bird. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, A Bluejay Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, A Bluejay Story, sentence 136

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The bird came down, and, grasping the piece of meat, flew away.

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**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** come down, grasp, fly away · **To what, where:** piece

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, A Bluejay Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird), 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:pg66596:4:136
# text = The bird came down, and, grasping the piece of meat, flew away.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	grasping	grasp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
15	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come down** | past | the bird |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **grasp** | gerund | the bird *not said here* | the piece of meat |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer piece=Stimulus |
| 3 | **fly away** | past |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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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