---
title: They did not know whether the tracks had been made by a girl or a boy. — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: They did not know whether the tracks had been made by a girl or a boy. Who acts: footprints, girl. 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 44

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They did not know whether the tracks had been made by a girl or a boy.

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**Who acts:** footprints, girl · **What happens:** not know, make · **To what, where:** tracks · **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 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 (footprints, girl), 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:pg66596:9:44
# text = They did not know whether the tracks had been made by a girl or a boy.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tracks	track	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | footprints *= footprint* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **make** | past · perfect · passive | a girl or a boy | the tracks |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Product |

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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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