---
title: They did not want to lose the ring, for it was very useful to them,… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: They did not want to lose the ring, for it was very useful to them, and they played with it all the time. Who acts: Bulls, ring. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Girl Who Was the Ring [1], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/123/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Punishment of the Stingy, and Othe…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/) / [The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/) / 123

# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\], sentence 123

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They did not want to lose the ring, for it was very useful to them, and they played with it all the time.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Bulls, ring · **What happens:** not want, lose, be, play · **To what, where:** ring, Bulls

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bulls, ring), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66596:7:123
# text = They did not want to lose the ring, for it was very useful to them, and they played with it all the time.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	useful	useful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
23	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	25	det:predet	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | Bulls *= bull* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Bulls *= bull* *not said here* | the ring |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | past | ring |  | Bulls *= bull* |  |  | useful *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **play** | past | Bulls *= bull* |  |  |  | time | with ring | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with it=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/122/)
- next →: [sentence 124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/124/)
- ↑ back to [The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/)