---
title: Whom can we send but the guards and the boys? and who is wise enough… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Whom can we send but the guards and the boys? and who is wise enough to lead them, and thus save Rome?" Who acts: we. 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 31

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Whom can we send but the guards and the boys? and who is wise enough to lead them, and thus save Rome?"

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** send, be, lead, save · **To what, where:** guards, Rome

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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 (we), 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:pg18442:27:31
# text = Whom can we send but the guards and the boys? and who is wise enough to lead them, and thus save Rome?"
1	Whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	obj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
16	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	lead	lead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	csubj	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
24	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | can | we | the guards and the boys |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent whom=Destination guard=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | enough, wise *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **lead** | to-infinitive |  | guards *= guard* |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **save** | infinitive |  | Rome |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rome=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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