---
title: To keep from starving, they had to eat the cactus-leaves, roasting t… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: To keep from starving, they had to eat the cactus-leaves, roasting them first to remove the sharp thorns. Who acts: people. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The North Wind and the South Wind, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The North Wind and the South Wind, sentence 13

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To keep from starving, they had to eat the cactus-leaves, roasting them first to remove the sharp thorns.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** keep, starve, have, eat, roast, remove · **To what, where:** cactus leaves, people, sharp thorns

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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 North Wind and the South Wind. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), 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:pg77804:21:13
# text = To keep from starving, they had to eat the cactus-leaves, roasting them first to remove the sharp thorns.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	cactus	cactus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	roasting	roast	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	remove	remove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	thorns	thorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **starve** | gerund | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | the cactus leaves |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient |
| 5 | **roast** | gerund | people *not said here* | people |  |  |  | first *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 6 | **remove** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | the sharp thorns |  |  |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thorn=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.

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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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