---
title: As he was going along he said to himself, “I thought it was really a… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: As he was going along he said to himself, “I thought it was really a whale, but it is only a fir-tree.” Who acts: Bluejay, shoulder. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Bluejay Visits the Ghosts, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Bluejay Visits the Ghosts, sentence 111

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As he was going along he said to himself, “I thought it was really a whale, but it is only a fir-tree.”

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**Who acts:** Bluejay, shoulder · **What happens:** go along, say, think, be · **To what, where:** Bluejay, whale, fir tree · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, Bluejay Visits the Ghosts. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bluejay, shoulder), 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:pg66596:6:111
# text = As he was going along he said to himself, “I thought it was really a whale, but it is only a fir-tree.”
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
5	along	along	ADP	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	really	really	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go along** | past · progressive | Bluejay |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Bluejay |  | Bluejay |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | Bluejay |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | shoulder | a whale |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | shoulder | a fir tree |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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