---
title: But, before the people could thank him enough for what he had done,… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: But, before the people could thank him enough for what he had done, he gave back the power to the white-haired Roman Fathers, and went again to his little farm and his plow. Who acts: people, Cincinnatus. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Story of Cincinnatus., with i
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Story of Cincinnatus., sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, before the people could thank him enough for what he had done, he gave back the power to the white-haired Roman Fathers, and went again to his little farm and his plow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, Cincinnatus · **What happens:** thank, do, give back, go · **To what, where:** Cincinnatus, power, white haired Roman Fathers, little farm

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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 (people, Cincinnatus), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg18442:27:55
# text = But, before the people could thank him enough for what he had done, he gave back the power to the white-haired Roman Fathers, and went again to his little farm and his plow.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	thank	thank	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
23	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	haired	haired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	Fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
31	again	again	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	plow	plow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thank** *speech: thank* | could | the people |  | Cincinnatus |  |  | enough *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | past · perfect | Cincinnatus |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **give back** | past | Cincinnatus | the power | the white haired Roman Fathers |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent power=Theme to father=Recipient |
| 4 | **go** | past | Cincinnatus *not said here* |  |  | Cincinnatus's little farm and Cincinnatus's plow | again |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to farm=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .note -->
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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