---
title: They could see his tracks where he had walked straight by them. — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · tree and pragmatics
description: They could see his tracks where he had walked straight by them. Who acts: things, 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 49

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They could see his tracks where he had walked straight by them.

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**Who acts:** things, boy · **What happens:** see, walk · **To what, where:** tracks

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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 (things, 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:pg66596:9:49
# text = They could see his tracks where he had walked straight by them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	tracks	track	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	9	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	walked	walk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
10	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | things *= thing* | boy's tracks |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer track=Stimulus |
| 2 | **walk** | past · perfect | boy |  |  |  |  | by things *= thing*; straight *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by they=Trajectory |

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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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