---
title: And the Little Black Ants above put their feet against the sky and p… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the Little Black Ants above put their feet against the sky and pushed with all their might on the top of the pine; and the Big Red Ants below caught the trunk and pulled as hard as they could; and the very first tug drove the great pine a quarter of its length into the earth. Who acts: Black Ant
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Ants That Pushed on the Sky, sentence 107

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And the Little Black Ants above put their feet against the sky and pushed with all their might on the top of the pine; and the Big Red Ants below caught the trunk and pulled as hard as they could; and the very first tug drove the great pine a quarter of its length into the earth.

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**Who acts:** Black Ants, Red Ants, first tug · **What happens:** put, push, catch, pull, drive · **To what, where:** feet, sky, trunk, great pine, earth

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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 Ants That Pushed on the Sky. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Black Ants, Red Ants, first tug), 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:pg77804:24:110
# text = And the Little Black Ants above put their feet against the sky and pushed with all their might on the top of the pine; and the Big Red Ants below caught the trunk and pulled as hard as they could; and the very first tug drove the great pine a quarter of its length into the earth.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	Little	Little	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	Ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	above	above	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	put	put	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	against	against	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	pushed	push	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
15	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
18	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pine	pine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	Big	Big	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	Red	Red	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	Ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
31	below	below	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
37	as	as	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	36	advmod	_	_
39	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
45	very	very	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	47	amod	_	_
47	tug	tug	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
48	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
50	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	pine	pine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	quarter	quarter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
54	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
56	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod	_	_
57	into	into	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | present | the Black Ants | eyes's feet |  | the sky |  | above *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent foot=Theme against sky=Destination |
| 2 | **push** | participle | the Black Ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  | eyes's top of the pine *advcl* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **catch** | past | the Red Ants | the trunk |  |  |  | below *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trunk=Theme |
| 4 | **pull** | past | the Red Ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **drive** | past | the first tug | the great pine |  | the earth |  | a quarter of foot's length *obj* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent pine=Theme quarter=Destination |

<!-- .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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