---
title: They told him how the army with all the noblest men of Rome had been… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: They told him how the army with all the noblest men of Rome had been en-trapped in the mountain pass. Who acts: cloak. 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 42

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They told him how the army with all the noblest men of Rome had been en-trapped in the mountain pass.

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**Who acts:** cloak · **What happens:** tell, trap, pass · **To what, where:** man, army, mountain · **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 (cloak), 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:pg18442:27:42
# text = They told him how the army with all the noblest men of Rome had been en-trapped in the mountain pass.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	noblest	noble	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
15	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	aux:pass	_	_
16	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	trapped	trap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	ccomp	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
22	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | cloak |  | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **trap** | past · perfect · passive |  | the army with all noblest men of Rome |  |  |  |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **pass** | infinitive |  |  |  | the mountain |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in mountain=Location |

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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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