---
title: The fierce men of the mountains were before us and behind us, and th… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The fierce men of the mountains were before us and behind us, and they were throwing rocks down upon us from above. Who acts: fierce men, mountains. 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 26

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The fierce men of the mountains were before us and behind us, and they were throwing rocks down upon us from above.

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**Who acts:** fierce men, mountains · **What happens:** be, throw down · **To what, where:** rocks

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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 (fierce men, mountains), 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:pg18442:27:26
# text = The fierce men of the mountains were before us and behind us, and they were throwing rocks down upon us from above.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	0	root	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	acl	_	_
18	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
19	down	down	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	above	above	ADV	RB	_	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the fierce men of the mountains |  |  |  | before us |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **throw down** | past · progressive | mountains *= mountain* | rocks |  |  |  | upon us; down *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent rock=Theme upon we=Destination |

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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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