---
title: And like men lying on their backs and gazing into the depths of the… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: And like men lying on their backs and gazing into the depths of the sky, they felt as it were enveloped in the colour of heaven, and lost their perception of mundane affairs. Who acts: men, depths. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, wit
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, sentence 7

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And like men lying on their backs and gazing into the depths of the sky, they felt as it were enveloped in the colour of heaven, and lost their perception of mundane affairs.

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**Who acts:** men, depths · **What happens:** lie, gaze, feel, envelop, lose, perceive · **To what, where:** backs, sky, colour, perception, mundane affairs

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This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, depths), 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:pg68641:3:7
# text = And like men lying on their backs and gazing into the depths of the sky, they felt as it were enveloped in the colour of heaven, and lost their perception of mundane affairs.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
2	like	like	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
4	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	gazing	gaze	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	conj	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	depths	depth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	enveloped	envelop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	perception	perception	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	mundane	mundane	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | gerund | men *not said here* |  |  | men's backs |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on back=Location |
| 2 | **gaze** | gerund | men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into the depths of the sky | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into depth=Theme |
| 3 | **feel** | past | depths *= depth* |  |  |  |  | like men | vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V S»: agent=Agent like man=Theme |
| 4 | **envelop** | past · passive |  | sky |  | the colour of heaven |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **lose** | past | depths *= depth* *not said here* | depths's perception of mundane affairs |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent perception=Eventuality |
| 6 | **perceive** |  | depths *= depth* | mundane affairs |  |  |  |  | nom perception «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient |

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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 descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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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