The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Town of the Snake-girls, sentence 30
He was very nimble, and caught it “on the fly”; but that very instant he was no longer the tall, handsome Young-Man-Who-Embraces-a-Corncob, but a poor little Coyote, with great tears rolling down his cheeks.
Who acts: Man, great tears · What happens: be, catch, not be, roll down · To what, where: wheel, cheeks
This is a sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Town of the Snake-girls. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Man, great tears), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 nimble | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 nimble | cop |
| 3 | very | very | ADV | _ | 4 nimble | advmod |
| 4 | nimble | nimble | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 caught | punct |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 caught | cc |
| 7 | caught | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 nimble | conj |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 caught | obj |
| 9 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 fly | punct |
| 10 | on | on | ADP | _ | 12 fly | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 fly | det |
| 12 | fly | fly | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 caught | obl |
| 13 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 fly | punct |
| 14 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 instant | punct |
| 15 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 18 instant | cc |
| 16 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 18 instant | nsubj |
| 17 | very | very | ADV | _ | 18 instant | advmod |
| 18 | instant | instant | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 nimble | parataxis |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 longer | nsubj |
| 20 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 longer | cop |
| 21 | no | no | ADV | _ | 22 longer | advmod |
| 22 | longer | long | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 18 instant | advmod |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 tall | det |
| 24 | tall | tall | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 instant | conj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 tall | punct |
| 26 | handsome | handsome | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 tall | conj |
| 27 | Young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 Man | amod |
| 28 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 27 Young | punct |
| 29 | Man | Man | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 handsome | obl |
| 30 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 31 Who | punct |
| 31 | Who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 29 Man | acl:relcl |
| 32 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 31 Who | punct |
| 33 | Embraces | embrace | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 Who | nsubj |
| 34 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 37 Corncob | punct |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 Corncob | det |
| 36 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 35 a | punct |
| 37 | Corncob | corncob | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 Embraces | conj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 Coyote | punct |
| 39 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 43 Coyote | cc |
| 40 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 43 Coyote | det |
| 41 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 Coyote | amod |
| 42 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 Coyote | amod |
| 43 | Coyote | Coyote | PROPN | Number=Sing | 37 Corncob | appos |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 tears | punct |
| 45 | with | with | ADP | _ | 47 tears | case |
| 46 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 tears | amod |
| 47 | tears | tear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 Coyote | nmod |
| 48 | rolling | roll | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 47 tears | acl |
| 49 | down | down | ADP | _ | 48 rolling | compound:prt |
| 50 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 51 cheeks | nmod:poss |
| 51 | cheeks | cheek | NOUN | Number=Plur | 48 rolling | obj |
| 52 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 nimble | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | Man | nimble property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | catch | past | Man not said here | wheel | on the fly | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | |||
| 3 | not is | past | Man | long property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | roll down | gerund | great tears not said here | Man's cheeks | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cheek=Agent |
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/pg77804/22/30/