---
title: They had seen the dust, and knew that some one was swinging their si… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: They had seen the dust, and knew that some one was swinging their sister, and that the Buffalo had come. Who acts: brothers, one, Buffalo. 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 p
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/52/)

<!-- 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/) / 52

# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\], sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They had seen the dust, and knew that some one was swinging their sister, and that the Buffalo had come.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brothers, one, Buffalo · **What happens:** see, know, swing, come · **To what, where:** dust, sister · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (brothers, one, Buffalo), 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:pg66596:7:52
# text = They had seen the dust, and knew that some one was swinging their sister, and that the Buffalo had come.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	det	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	swinging	swing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Buffalo	Buffalo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past · perfect | brothers *= brother* | the dust |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dust=Stimulus |
| 2 | **know** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **swing** | past · progressive | some one | brothers's sister |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme sister=Result |
| 4 | **come** | past · perfect | the Buffalo |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/53/)
- ↑ back to [The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/7/)