---
title: So he set to work with his little hatchet, and, as the tree was a ve… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: So he set to work with his little hatchet, and, as the tree was a very small one, it did not take long to lay it low. Who acts: George, tree, it. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, George Washington and His Hatchet., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, George Washington and His Hatchet., sentence 5

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So he set to work with his little hatchet, and, as the tree was a very small one, it did not take long to lay it low.

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**Who acts:** George, tree, it · **What happens:** set, work, be, not take, lay · **To what, where:** tree

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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, it), 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:pg18442:21:5
# text = So he set to work with his little hatchet, and, as the tree was a very small one, it did not take long to lay it low.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	hatchet	hatchet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	parataxis	_	_
26	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past | George |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **work** | to-infinitive | George *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with George's little hatchet | vn cooperate-73.1-3 «NP V PP.co-agent PP.theme»: agent=Agent with hatchet=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | the tree |  |  |  |  | as a small one | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **take** | past · do-support | it |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **lay** | to-infinitive |  | tree |  |  |  | low *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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