---
title: Cincinnatus might then have made himself king; for his word was law,… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Cincinnatus might then have made himself king; for his word was law, and no man dared lift a finger against him. Who acts: man, Cincinnatus. 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 54

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Cincinnatus might then have made himself king; for his word was law, and no man dared lift a finger against him.

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**Who acts:** man, Cincinnatus · **What happens:** make, be, dare, lift, word · **To what, where:** Cincinnatus, word law, finger

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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, Cincinnatus), 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:pg18442:27:54
# text = Cincinnatus might then have made himself king; for his word was law, and no man dared lift a finger against him.
1	Cincinnatus	cincinnatus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obl	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	lift	lift	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	against	against	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | might · perfect · passive |  | Cincinnatus |  |  | then | Cincinnatus *obl* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | word law |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dare** | past | no man |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **lift** | infinitive | no man *not said here* | a finger |  |  |  | against Cincinnatus | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent finger=Theme against he=Destination |
| 5 | **word** |  | Cincinnatus |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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