---
title: The challenge was for life or death; whichever side won was to kill… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: The challenge was for life or death; whichever side won was to kill the others without being resisted. Who acts: challenge, side. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Drowning of Pecos, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Drowning of Pecos, sentence 27

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The challenge was for life or death; whichever side won was to kill the others without being resisted.

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**Who acts:** challenge, side · **What happens:** be, win, resist

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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 Drowning of Pecos. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (challenge, side), 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:pg77804:23:27
# text = The challenge was for life or death; whichever side won was to kill the others without being resisted.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	challenge	challenge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	whichever	whichever	DET	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	det	_	_
10	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	won	win	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	resisted	resist	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the challenge |  |  |  |  | for life or death; death *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **win** | past | whichever side |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | whichever side *not said here* |  |  |  |  | the others *obj*; kill *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **resist** | gerund · passive | whichever side *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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