---
title: The fierce waves broke against the boat, and it would have been dash… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The fierce waves broke against the boat, and it would have been dashed in pieces, had it not been for the strength and skill of the brave girl. Who acts: fierce waves. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Grace Darling., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Grace Darling., sentence 26

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The fierce waves broke against the boat, and it would have been dashed in pieces, had it not been for the strength and skill of the brave girl.

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**Who acts:** fierce waves · **What happens:** break, dash, have, not be · **To what, where:** boat, pieces

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Grace Darling.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fierce waves), 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:pg18442:22:26
# text = The fierce waves broke against the boat, and it would have been dashed in pieces, had it not been for the strength and skill of the brave girl.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
13	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	dashed	dash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	cop	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | past | the fierce waves |  |  | the boat |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against boat=Location |
| 2 | **dash** | would · perfect · passive |  | boat |  | pieces |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme in piece=Trajectory |
| 3 | **have** | past | the fierce waves *not said here* | boat |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for the strength and skill of the brave girl | tree rules |

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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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