---
title: When they were there, he opened his robe and spread it out, and it w… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were there, he opened his robe and spread it out, and it was covered with pieces of fat buffalo meat piled high. Who acts: people, man, pieces. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The First Corn, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The First Corn, sentence 53

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When they were there, he opened his robe and spread it out, and it was covered with pieces of fat buffalo meat piled high.

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**Who acts:** people, man, pieces · **What happens:** be, open, spread out, cover, buffalo, pile · **To what, where:** robe, meat

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The First Corn. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, man, pieces), 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:pg66596:8:53
# text = When they were there, he opened his robe and spread it out, and it was covered with pieces of fat buffalo meat piled high.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	robe	robe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
19	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	buffalo	buffalo	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
24	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	piled	pile	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	high	high	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | people |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **open** | past | man | man's robe |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location robe=Theme |
| 3 | **spread out** | past | man *not said here* | robe |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 4 | **cover** | past · passive |  | robe |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |
| 5 | **buffalo** | present | pieces of fat | meat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **pile** | participle |  | meat *not said here* |  |  |  | high *property* | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: 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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