---
title: While he was lis-ten-ing to the birds among the leaves, he saw a you… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was lis-ten-ing to the birds among the leaves, he saw a young man passing by. Who acts: Hood, young man. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Story of Robin Hood., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, A Story of Robin Hood., sentence 18

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While he was lis-ten-ing to the birds among the leaves, he saw a young man passing by.

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**Who acts:** Hood, young man · **What happens:** be, e, see, pass by · **To what, where:** lis, young man

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Story of Robin Hood.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hood, young man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg18442:11:18
# text = While he was lis-ten-ing to the birds among the leaves, he saw a young man passing by.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	lis	li	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	ing	e	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
12	among	among	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Hood | lis |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **e** | gerund | Hood *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the birds among the leaves | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | past | Hood | a young man |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 4 | **pass by** | gerund | a young man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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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