---
title: It was no easy thing for the king's men to open the roads; and while… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: It was no easy thing for the king's men to open the roads; and while they were doing it, the king grew tired of waiting, and went back to London. Who acts: fool, roads, king. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Other Wise Men of Gotham., with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Other Wise Men of Gotham., sentence 27

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It was no easy thing for the king's men to open the roads; and while they were doing it, the king grew tired of waiting, and went back to London.

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**Who acts:** fool, roads, king · **What happens:** be, open, do, grow, wait, go back · **To what, where:** easy thing, roads, fool, London

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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 (fool, roads, king), 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:pg18442:15:27
# text = It was no easy thing for the king's men to open the roads; and while they were doing it, the king grew tired of waiting, and went back to London.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
4	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
17	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
26	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
32	back	back	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	London	London	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | fool | no easy thing |  |  |  | for the king's men | tree rules |
| 2 | **open** | to-infinitive | fool *not said here* | the roads |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location road=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | past · progressive | roads *= road* | fool |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **grow** | past | the king |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **wait** | gerund | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **go back** | past | the king *not said here* |  | London |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to london=Result |

<!-- .note -->
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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