---
title: They were playing games—dice and the ring game—and dancing—tum, tum,… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: They were playing games—dice and the ring game—and dancing—tum, tum, tum, tum—and singing. Who acts: people. 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 of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, Bluejay Visits the Ghosts, sentence 158

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They were playing games—dice and the ring game—and dancing—tum, tum, tum, tum—and singing.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** play, dance, sing · **To what, where:** games, tum

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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 (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:pg66596:6:158
# text = They were playing games—dice and the ring game—and dancing—tum, tum, tum, tum—and singing.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	games	game	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	dice	die	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	tum	tum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	tum	tum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	tum	tum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	tum	tum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | people | games and dice and the ring game |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent game=Theme |
| 2 | **dance** | gerund |  | tum and tum and tum and tum |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tum=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «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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