---
title: When the Buffalo had come close, the boys would kill them in a circl… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Buffalo had come close, the boys would kill them in a circle all about the swing. Who acts: Buffalo, boys. 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 of every clau
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Girl Who Was the Ring \[1\], sentence 8

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When the Buffalo had come close, the boys would kill them in a circle all about the swing.

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**Who acts:** Buffalo, boys · **What happens:** come, kill · **To what, where:** bows, circle

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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, boys), 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:pg66596:7:8
# text = When the Buffalo had come close, the boys would kill them in a circle all about the swing.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Buffalo	Buffalo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	csubj	_	_
6	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	circle	circle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	all	all	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	swing	swing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past · perfect | the Buffalo |  |  |  |  | close *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** | would | the boys | bows *= bow* |  | a circle about the swing |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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