---
title: But if his eyes strained in vain, his ears did not. — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: But if his eyes strained in vain, his ears did not. Who acts: eyes, ears. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Hungry Grandfathers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Hungry Grandfathers, sentence 68

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But if his eyes strained in vain, his ears did not.

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**Who acts:** eyes, ears · **What happens:** strain, not do · **To what, where:** vain

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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 Hungry Grandfathers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, ears), 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:pg77804:32:68
# text = But if his eyes strained in vain, his ears did not.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	strained	strain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strain** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | Desiderio's eyes |  |  | vain |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **do** | past | Desiderio's ears |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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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