---
title: They untied the cords from his wrists and feet, and set him free. — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: They untied the cords from his wrists and feet, and set him free. Who acts: riors. 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 76

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They untied the cords from his wrists and feet, and set him free.

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**Who acts:** riors · **What happens:** untie, set · **To what, where:** cords, king

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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 (riors), 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:pg18442:20:76
# text = They untied the cords from his wrists and feet, and set him free.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	untied	untie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cords	cord	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	wrists	wrist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **untie** | past | riors *= rior* | the cords |  |  |  | from king's wrists and feet | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent cord=Patient from wrist=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **set** | infinitive | riors *= rior* *not said here* | king |  |  |  | free *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient he=Result |

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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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