---
title: They had done something that was against the laws of the land, and h… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: They had done something that was against the laws of the land, and had been forced to hide themselves in the woods to save their lives. Who acts: men. 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 4

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They had done something that was against the laws of the land, and had been forced to hide themselves in the woods to save their lives.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** do, force, hide, save · **To what, where:** something, men, woods, lives

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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 (men), 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:pg18442:11:4
# text = They had done something that was against the laws of the land, and had been forced to hide themselves in the woods to save their lives.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	against	against	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	laws	law	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past · perfect | men *= man* | something |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Eventuality |
| 2 | **force** | past · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hide** | to-infinitive |  | men *= man* |  | the woods |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient in wood=Location |
| 4 | **save** | to-infinitive |  | men's lives |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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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