---
title: He had once been rich, and had held the highest office in the land;… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: He had once been rich, and had held the highest office in the land; but in one way or another he had lost all his wealth. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Story of Cincinnatus., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Story of Cincinnatus., sentence 2

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He had once been rich, and had held the highest office in the land; but in one way or another he had lost all his wealth.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** have, be, hold, lose · **To what, where:** highest office, land, wealth, one way

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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 (man), 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:pg18442:27:2
# text = He had once been rich, and had held the highest office in the land; but in one way or another he had lost all his wealth.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	amod	_	_
12	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	conj	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
26	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	28	det:predet	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	wealth	wealth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | participle | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | once, rich *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **hold** | past · perfect | man *not said here* | the highest office |  | the land |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent office=Theme in land=Location |
| 4 | **lose** | past · perfect | man | man's wealth |  | one way |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wealth=Eventuality |

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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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