---
title: They boasted that they would tear down the walls of Rome, and burn t… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: They boasted that they would tear down the walls of Rome, and burn the houses, and kill all the men, and make slaves of the women and children. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Story of Cincinnatus., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Story of Cincinnatus., sentence 10

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They boasted that they would tear down the walls of Rome, and burn the houses, and kill all the men, and make slaves of the women and children.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** boast, tear down, burn, kill, make · **To what, where:** walls, houses, men, slaves · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Story of Cincinnatus.. 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:pg18442:27:10
# text = They boasted that they would tear down the walls of Rome, and burn the houses, and kill all the men, and make slaves of the women and children.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	boasted	boast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
26	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **boast** *speech: other* | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tear down** | would | people | the walls of Rome |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location wall=Theme |
| 3 | **burn** | infinitive | people *not said here* | the houses |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** | infinitive | people *not said here* | all men |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 5 | **make** | infinitive | people *not said here* | slaves of the women and children |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset slave=Product |

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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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