---
title: The boys threw stones at him, the dogs barked at him, and in all the… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The boys threw stones at him, the dogs barked at him, and in all the world there was no one to pity him. Who acts: boys, dogs. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Bell of Atri., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Bell of Atri., sentence 53

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The boys threw stones at him, the dogs barked at him, and in all the world there was no one to pity him.

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**Who acts:** boys, dogs · **What happens:** throw, bark, be, pity · **To what, where:** stones, one, world, Lame

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Bell of Atri.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, dogs), 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:pg18442:25:53
# text = The boys threw stones at him, the dogs barked at him, and in all the world there was no one to pity him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	barked	bark	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
19	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	20	expl	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	pity	pity	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | the boys | stones |  |  |  | at Lame | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent stone=Theme at he=Destination |
| 2 | **bark** | past | the dogs |  |  |  |  | at Lame | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Agent at he=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the boys *not said here* | no one |  | all world |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pity** | to-infinitive | the boys *not said here* | Lame |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

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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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