The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Accursed Lake, sentence 119

While they were yet far off, they could see the wicked Lake-Man sitting at the top of his ladder, watching to see if the boy would return, and even while they looked they saw the lightning of the Trues strike him and tear him to shreds.

Who acts: daughters, wicked Lake Man, boy, Trues · What happens: be, see, sit, watch, return, look · To what, where: wicked Lake Man, top, lightning, boy

This is a sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Accursed Lake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (daughters, wicked Lake Man, boy, Trues), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	While	while	SCONJ	_	6 off	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 off	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 off	cop
4	yet	yet	ADV	_	6 off	advmod
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 off	advmod
6	off	off	ADV	_	10 see	advcl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 off	punct
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 see	nsubj
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 see	aux
10	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Man	det
12	wicked	wicked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 Man	amod
13	Lake	Lake	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 Man	compound
14	-	-	PUNCT	_	13 Lake	punct
15	Man	Man	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 see	obl
16	sitting	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 Man	acl
17	at	at	ADP	_	19 top	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 top	det
19	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 sitting	obl
20	of	of	ADP	_	22 ladder	case
21	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 ladder	nmod:poss
22	ladder	ladder	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 top	nmod
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 watching	punct
24	watching	watch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	16 sitting	advcl
25	to	to	PART	_	26 see	mark
26	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 watching	advcl
27	if	if	SCONJ	_	31 return	mark
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 boy	det
29	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 return	nsubj
30	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	31 return	aux
31	return	return	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 see	ccomp
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 looked	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 looked	cc
34	even	even	ADV	_	37 looked	advmod
35	while	while	SCONJ	_	37 looked	mark
36	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 looked	nsubj
37	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 see	parataxis
38	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 saw	nsubj
39	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 looked	parataxis
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 lightning	det
41	lightning	lightning	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 saw	obj
42	of	of	SCONJ	_	45 strike	mark
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 Trues	det
44	Trues	true	NOUN	Number=Plur	45 strike	nsubj
45	strike	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	41 lightning	acl:relcl
46	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 strike	obj
47	and	and	CCONJ	_	48 tear	cc
48	tear	tear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 strike	conj
49	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 tear	obj
50	to	to	ADP	_	51 shreds	case
51	shreds	shred	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 tear	obl
52	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 see	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	daughters = daughter			yet	far, off property	tree rules
2	see	could	daughters = daughter	the wicked Lake Man				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	sit	gerund	the wicked Lake Man not said here		the top of Cacique's ladder			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at top=Location
4	watch	gerund	the wicked Lake Man not said here					vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent
5	see	to-infinitive	the wicked Lake Man not said here					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
6	return a condition, not said to happen	would	the boy					vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
7	look	past	daughters = daughter					vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
8	see	past	daughters = daughter	the lightning				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lightning=Stimulus
9	strike	present	the Trues	boy				vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Instrument
10	tear	infinitive	the Trues not said here	boy			to shreds result	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent he=Patient to shred=Result

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.

Text: «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, Project Gutenberg book 77804 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/19/119/

🌲 The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Accursed Lake, sentence 119

The tree

Pragmatics

The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Accursed Lake, sentence 119