---
title: But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit the mark. Who acts: minister, Shiwa. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, sentence 82

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But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit the mark.

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**Who acts:** minister, Shiwa · **What happens:** draw, not know, hit · **To what, where:** bow, venture, mark · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (minister, Shiwa), 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:pg68641:3:82
# text = But the minister drew his bow at a venture, and knew not how he hit the mark.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	venture	venture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	mark	mark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past | the minister | Shiwa's bow |  | a venture |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bow=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past | the minister *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hit** | past | Shiwa | the mark |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mark=Co-Theme |

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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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