The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The First of the Rattlesnakes, sentence 107
He took from his medicine-pouch a pinch of the sacred meal and laid it on the snake’s flat head for its food; and then a pinch of the corn-pollen to tame it.
Who acts: friend · What happens: take, lay, tame, pinch · To what, where: pinch, medicine pouch, sacred meal, corn pollen
This is a sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The First of the Rattlesnakes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend), 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 | 2 took | nsubj |
| 2 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | from | from | ADP | _ | 7 pouch | case |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 pouch | nmod:poss |
| 5 | medicine | medicine | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 pouch | compound |
| 6 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 medicine | punct |
| 7 | pouch | pouch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 took | obl |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 pinch | det |
| 9 | pinch | pinch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 took | obj |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 meal | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 meal | det |
| 12 | sacred | sacred | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 meal | amod |
| 13 | meal | meal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 pinch | nmod |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 laid | cc |
| 15 | laid | lay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 took | conj |
| 16 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 laid | obj |
| 17 | on | on | ADP | _ | 19 snake | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 snake | det |
| 19 | snake | snake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 laid | obl |
| 20 | ’s | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 laid | conj |
| 21 | flat | flat | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 head | amod |
| 22 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 ’s | obj |
| 23 | for | for | ADP | _ | 25 food | case |
| 24 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 food | nmod:poss |
| 25 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 head | nmod |
| 26 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 30 pinch | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 pinch | cc |
| 28 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 30 pinch | advmod |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 pinch | det |
| 30 | pinch | pinch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 took | obl |
| 31 | of | of | ADP | _ | 35 pollen | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 pollen | det |
| 33 | corn | corn | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 pollen | compound |
| 34 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 33 corn | punct |
| 35 | pollen | pollen | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 pinch | nmod |
| 36 | to | to | PART | _ | 37 tame | mark |
| 37 | tame | tame | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 pollen | acl |
| 38 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 tame | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 took | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | past | friend | a pinch of the sacred meal | friend's medicine pouch | a pinch of the corn pollen obl | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent pinch=Theme from pouch=Initial_Location | ||
| 2 | lay | past | friend not said here | pinch | on the snake | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on snake=Destination | |||
| 3 | tame | to-infinitive | friend not said here | pinch | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient | ||||
| 4 | pinch | the sacred meal | nom pinch «state transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 5 | pinch | the corn pollen | nom pinch «state transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg77804/8/107/