---
title: "Let us chop down the big trees in the woods, so that they will bloc… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "Let us chop down the big trees in the woods, so that they will block up all the roads that lead into the town," said one of the wise men. Who acts: us, men, roads, one. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Other Wise Men of Gotham., with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Other Wise Men of Gotham., sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Let us chop down the big trees in the woods, so that they will block up all the roads that lead into the town," said one of the wise men.

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**Who acts:** us, men, roads, one · **What happens:** let, chop down, block up, lead, say · **To what, where:** us, big trees, roads, town · **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 (us, men, roads, one), 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:pg18442:15:7
# text = "Let us chop down the big trees in the woods, so that they will block up all the roads that lead into the town," said one of the wise men.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	chop	chop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	17	mark	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	fixed	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	block	block	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	lead	lead	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nsubj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **chop down** *in a quote* | infinitive | us *not said here* | the big trees in the woods |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Patient |
| 3 | **block up** *in a quote* | future | men *= man* | all roads |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer road=Theme |
| 4 | **lead** *in a quote* | present | all roads |  |  | the town |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent into town=Destination |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | one of the wise men |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

<!-- .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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