---
title: Often he went out to gather mussels and tried to break them off from… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: Often he went out to gather mussels and tried to break them off from the rocks, but he could not do it. Who acts: Bluejay. 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 199

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Often he went out to gather mussels and tried to break them off from the rocks, but he could not do it.

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**Who acts:** Bluejay · **What happens:** go out, gather, try, break off, not do · **To what, where:** mussels, rock

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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 (Bluejay), 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:pg66596:4:199
# text = Often he went out to gather mussels and tried to break them off from the rocks, but he could not do it.
1	Often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	gather	gather	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	mussels	mussel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go out** | past | Bluejay |  |  |  |  | often, out *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **gather** | to-infinitive | Bluejay *not said here* | mussels |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mussel=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | past | Bluejay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **break off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Bluejay *not said here* | Mussels *= mussel* |  |  |  | from the rocks | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient from rock=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **not** **do** | could | Bluejay | rock |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

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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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