---
title: An absolutely literal translation would be almost unintelligible to… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: An absolutely literal translation would be almost unintelligible to English readers, but I have taken no liberties with the real meaning. Who acts: literal translation, I. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Brown Story-t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/2/56/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The man who married the moon, and othe…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/) / [The Brown Story-tellers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/2/) / 56

# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Brown Story-tellers, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An absolutely literal translation would be almost unintelligible to English readers, but I have taken no liberties with the real meaning.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** literal translation, I · **What happens:** be, take · **To what, where:** liberties

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (literal translation, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg77804:2:56
# text = An absolutely literal translation would be almost unintelligible to English readers, but I have taken no liberties with the real meaning.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	absolutely	absolutely	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	literal	literal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	translation	translation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
7	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	unintelligible	unintelligible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	readers	reader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	liberties	liberty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | a literal translation |  |  |  |  | to English readers; almost, unintelligible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | present · perfect | I | no liberties |  |  |  | with the real meaning | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent liberty=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/2/55/)
- next →: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/2/57/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Story-tellers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/2/)