---
title: When they came to a steep place where there seemed to be no way to g… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: When they came to a steep place where there seemed to be no way to go farther, the trum-pets sounded "Charge!" Who acts: miles, trum pets. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, How Napoleon Crossed the Alps., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, How Napoleon Crossed the Alps., sentence 12

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When they came to a steep place where there seemed to be no way to go farther, the trum-pets sounded "Charge!"

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**Who acts:** miles, trum pets · **What happens:** come, seem, be, go, sound · **To what, where:** steep place, way, Charge

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, How Napoleon Crossed the Alps.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (miles, trum pets), 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:pg18442:26:12
# text = When they came to a steep place where there seemed to be no way to go farther, the trum-pets sounded "Charge!"
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	10	advmod	_	_
9	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
10	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	xcomp	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	acl	_	_
17	farther	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	trum	trum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	pets	pet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Charge	charge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | miles *= mile* |  |  | a steep place |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to place=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **seem** | past |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | no way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sound** | past | the trum pets | Charge |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location charge=Theme |

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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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