---
title: He ran into the garden, and there he saw a tree which seemed to say… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: He ran into the garden, and there he saw a tree which seemed to say to him, "Come and cut me down!" Who acts: George, tree. 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 3

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He ran into the garden, and there he saw a tree which seemed to say to him, "Come and cut me down!"

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**Who acts:** George, tree · **What happens:** run, see, seem, say, come, cut down · **To what, where:** garden, tree, George, me · **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 (George, tree), 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:pg18442:21:3
# text = He ran into the garden, and there he saw a tree which seemed to say to him, "Come and cut me down!"
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	down	down	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | George |  |  |  |  | into the garden *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into garden=Result |
| 2 | **see** | past | George | a tree |  | there |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tree=Stimulus |
| 3 | **seem** | past | a tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | a tree *not said here* |  | George |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | infinitive | George *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **cut down** *in a quote* | infinitive | George *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset i=Product |

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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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