---
title: He told the brothers his story and said that he had tried hard to sa… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: He told the brothers his story and said that he had tried hard to save the girl, but that he had not known that so many Buffalo would come. Who acts: Buffalo, many Buffalo. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Girl Who Was the Ring [1], 
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\], sentence 56

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He told the brothers his story and said that he had tried hard to save the girl, but that he had not known that so many Buffalo would come.

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**Who acts:** Buffalo, many Buffalo · **What happens:** tell, say, try, save, not know, come · **To what, where:** story, brothers, girl, Buffalo · **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, 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 (Buffalo, many Buffalo), 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:pg66596:7:56
# text = He told the brothers his story and said that he had tried hard to save the girl, but that he had not known that so many Buffalo would come.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	iobj	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
13	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	obj	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
27	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	Buffalo	Buffalo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Buffalo | Buffalo's story | the brothers |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent brother=Recipient story=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Buffalo *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **try** | past · perfect | Buffalo |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **save** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Buffalo *not said here* | the girl |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **know** | past · perfect · passive |  | Buffalo |  |  |  | that *obj* | tree rules |
| 6 | **come** | would | many Buffalo |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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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