---
title: The people of Swit-zer-land were not always free and happy as they a… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The people of Swit-zer-land were not always free and happy as they are to-day. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Story of William Tell., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Story of William Tell., sentence 1

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The people of Swit-zer-land were not always free and happy as they are to-day.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** not be, be

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Story of William Tell.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), 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:pg18442:23:1
# text = The people of Swit-zer-land were not always free and happy as they are to-day.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
4	Swit	Swit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	zer	zer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	12	advmod	_	_
12	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the people of Swit zer land |  |  |  |  | always, free *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the people of Swit zer land *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | people |  |  |  | as day |  | 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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