---
title: Women would tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the B… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Women would tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the Black Douglas would get them; and this would make them very quiet and good. Who acts: Women, Black Douglas, this. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Black Douglas., with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Black Douglas., sentence 7

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Women would tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the Black Douglas would get them; and this would make them very quiet and good.

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**Who acts:** Women, Black Douglas, this · **What happens:** tell, be, get, make · **To what, where:** chil dren, Women · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Black Douglas.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Women, Black Douglas, this), 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:pg18442:13:7
# text = Women would tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the Black Douglas would get them; and this would make them very quiet and good.
1	Women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
5	chil	chil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	dren	dren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	naughty	naughty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	Douglas	Douglas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | Women | Women's chil dren |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent dren=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | past | Women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | naughty *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | would | the Black Douglas | Women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 4 | **make** | would | this | Women *= woman* |  |  |  | quiet *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Product |

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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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