---
title: "Our wits have kept the king out of the town," said one; "and so now… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "Our wits have kept the king out of the town," said one; "and so now our wits must save our noses." Who acts: wits. 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 19

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"Our wits have kept the king out of the town," said one; "and so now our wits must save our noses."

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**Who acts:** wits · **What happens:** keep, say, save · **To what, where:** wits, town, one, noses · **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 (wits), 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:pg18442:15:19
# text = "Our wits have kept the king out of the town," said one; "and so now our wits must save our noses."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
20	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
21	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
25	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Our wits |  | the town |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme king=Attribute |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **save** *in a quote* | must | our wits | our noses |  |  | now |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=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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