---
title: But the Coyote could not answer; and the old man called again: “Coyo… — The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo I… · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Coyote could not answer; and the old man called again: “Coyote, are you people?” Who acts: Coyote, old man. A sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The First of the Rattlesnakes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The First of the Rattlesnakes, sentence 57

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But the Coyote could not answer; and the old man called again: “Coyote, are you people?”

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**Who acts:** Coyote, old man · **What happens:** not answer, call, be · **To what, where:** old man, people · **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 First of the Rattlesnakes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Coyote, old man), 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:pg77804:8:58
# text = But the Coyote could not answer; and the old man called again: “Coyote, are you people?”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Coyote	Coyote	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
12	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	again	again	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Coyote	coyote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **answer** *speech: ask* | could | the Coyote |  | the old man and Coyote |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | the old man and Coyote *not said here* |  |  | again |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the old man and Coyote *= man* | people |  |  |  |  | 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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