---
title: Perhaps if we had tails like yours, we could run straight; but now w… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps if we had tails like yours, we could run straight; but now we have to hop.” Who acts: we. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Race of the Tails, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Race of the Tails, sentence 6

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Perhaps if we had tails like yours, we could run straight; but now we have to hop.”

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** have, run, hop · **To what, where:** tails

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This is a sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Race of the Tails. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg77804:16:6
# text = Perhaps if we had tails like yours, we could run straight; but now we have to hop.”
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	yours	your	PRON	PRP	Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	hop	hop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | we | tails |  |  |  | like yours; perhaps *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 2 | **run** | could | we |  |  |  |  | straight *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | present | we |  |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hop** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 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.

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