---
title: They were very fond of stories of adventure, like less precocious la… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: They were very fond of stories of adventure, like less precocious lads; and after the death of their mother they kept their grandmother busy telling them strange tales. Who acts: Twins, grandmother, mother. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Hero Twins, sentence 38

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They were very fond of stories of adventure, like less precocious lads; and after the death of their mother they kept their grandmother busy telling them strange tales.

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**Who acts:** Twins, grandmother, mother · **What happens:** be, keep, tell, die · **To what, where:** grandmother, strange tales, Twins · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 Hero Twins. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Twins, grandmother, mother), 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:pg77804:31:38
# text = They were very fond of stories of adventure, like less precocious lads; and after the death of their mother they kept their grandmother busy telling them strange tales.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	adventure	adventure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	_
12	precocious	precocious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	lads	lad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
16	after	after	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
27	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	xcomp	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Twins *= twin* |  |  |  |  | of stories of adventure and precocious lads; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | past | Twins *= twin* | Twins's grandmother |  |  | after the death of Twins's mother | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | Twins's grandmother *not said here* | strange tales | Twins *= twin* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient tale=Topic |
| 4 | **die** |  | Twins's mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: of=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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