---
title: "If I only knew who killed that cherry tree," he cried, "I would--ye… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "If I only knew who killed that cherry tree," he cried, "I would--yes, I would"-- Who acts: father. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, George Washington and His Hatchet., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, George Washington and His Hatchet., sentence 10

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"If I only knew who killed that cherry tree," he cried, "I would--yes, I would"--

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** know, kill, cry · **To what, where:** cherry tree · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, George Washington and His Hatchet.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), 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:pg18442:21:10
# text = "If I only knew who killed that cherry tree," he cried, "I would--yes, I would"--
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
8	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
9	cherry	cherry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	23	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **kill** *in a quote* | past |  | that cherry tree |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=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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