---
title: Before they started the grandmother asked the Star Boy where he came… — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: Before they started the grandmother asked the Star Boy where he came from. Who acts: people, boy. A sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Star Boy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories, The Star Boy, sentence 109

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Before they started the grandmother asked the Star Boy where he came from.

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**Who acts:** people, boy · **What happens:** start, ask, come · **To what, where:** grandmother, Star Boy

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This is a sentence of «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell, The Star Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, boy), 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:pg66596:9:109
# text = Before they started the grandmother asked the Star Boy where he came from.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	Star	Star	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	iobj	_	_
10	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | past | people | the grandmother |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandmother=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the Star Boy |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient |
| 3 | **come** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | 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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