---
title: Then one, whose name was Dobbin, and who was thought to be the wises… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Then one, whose name was Dobbin, and who was thought to be the wisest of them all, said, "Let me tell you something. Who acts: name, Dobbin. 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 22

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Then one, whose name was Dobbin, and who was thought to be the wisest of them all, said, "Let me tell you something.

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**Who acts:** name, Dobbin · **What happens:** be, think, say, let, tell, name · **To what, where:** Dobbin, something, you · **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 (name, Dobbin), 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:pg18442:15:22
# text = Then one, whose name was Dobbin, and who was thought to be the wisest of them all, said, "Let me tell you something.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	Dobbin	Dobbin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	wisest	wise	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	ccomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Dobbin's name | Dobbin |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | Dobbin |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | of others *= other*; wise *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Dobbin |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | Dobbin |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | Dobbin *not said here* | something | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient something=Topic |
| 7 | **name** |  | Dobbin |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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