---
title: “Mercy!” howled the Coyote, as the pebbles pattered against him. — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: “Mercy!” howled the Coyote, as the pebbles pattered against him. Who acts: Mercy, pebbles. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Coyote and the Blackbirds, 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 Coyote and the Blackbirds, sentence 22

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“Mercy!” howled the Coyote, as the pebbles pattered against him.

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**Who acts:** Mercy, pebbles · **What happens:** howl, patter · **To what, where:** Coyote

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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 Coyote and the Blackbirds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mercy, pebbles), 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:pg77804:6:22
# text = “Mercy!” howled the Coyote, as the pebbles pattered against him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	howled	howl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Coyote	Coyote	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	pebbles	pebble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	pattered	patter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	against	against	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **howl** | past | Mercy | the Coyote |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent coyote=Theme |
| 2 | **patter** | past | the pebbles |  |  |  |  | against Mercy | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against he=Location |

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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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