---
title: "Who chopped those trees down in my way?" he asked of two country la… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "Who chopped those trees down in my way?" he asked of two country lads that were passing by. Who acts: king, two country lads. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Other Wise Men of Gotham., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Other Wise Men of Gotham., sentence 13

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"Who chopped those trees down in my way?" he asked of two country lads that were passing by.

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**Who acts:** king, two country lads · **What happens:** chop down, ask, pass by · **To what, where:** trees, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Other Wise Men of Gotham.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, two country lads), 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:pg18442:15:13
# text = "Who chopped those trees down in my way?" he asked of two country lads that were passing by.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chopped	chop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
4	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
16	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	lads	lad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chop down** *in a quote* | past |  | that trees |  | my way |  | down *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent tree=Patient in way=Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | king |  |  |  |  | of two country lads | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of lad=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pass by** | past · progressive | two country lads |  |  |  |  |  | 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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