---
title: There was only one thing that he could do, and no other man would ha… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: There was only one thing that he could do, and no other man would have thought of that. Who acts: one thing, thing. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Sir Walter Raleigh., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Sir Walter Raleigh., sentence 19

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There was only one thing that he could do, and no other man would have thought of that.

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**Who acts:** one thing, thing · **What happens:** be, do, think · **To what, where:** one thing, other man

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Sir Walter Raleigh.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one thing, thing), 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:pg18442:20:19
# text = There was only one thing that he could do, and no other man would have thought of that.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | one thing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | could | thing | one thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | would · perfect · passive |  | no other man |  |  |  | of that | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: subject=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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