---
title: They do nothing without some reason, generally a religious one, and… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: They do nothing without some reason, generally a religious one, and whatever they observe they can explain in their own superstitious way. Who acts: images. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Brown Story-tellers, with it
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Brown Story-tellers, sentence 50

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They do nothing without some reason, generally a religious one, and whatever they observe they can explain in their own superstitious way.

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**Who acts:** images · **What happens:** do, observe, explain · **To what, where:** nothing, own superstitious way

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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 Brown Story-tellers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (images), 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:pg77804:2:50
# text = They do nothing without some reason, generally a religious one, and whatever they observe they can explain in their own superstitious way.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	obj	_	_
4	without	without	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	religious	religious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	conj	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	observe	observe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
22	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	superstitious	superstitious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present | images *= image* | nothing |  |  |  | without some reason; whatever *conj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **observe** | present | images *= image* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **explain** *speech: assert* | can | images *= image* |  |  | images's own superstitious way |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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