---
title: They bowed before her, as Roman lads were taught to do, and said, "W… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: They bowed before her, as Roman lads were taught to do, and said, "What is it, mother?" Who acts: boys, Roman lads. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Cornelia's Jewels., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Cornelia's Jewels., sentence 16

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They bowed before her, as Roman lads were taught to do, and said, "What is it, mother?"

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**Who acts:** boys, Roman lads · **What happens:** bow, teach, do, say, be · **To what, where:** Roman lads, smile · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Cornelia's Jewels.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, Roman lads), 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:pg18442:29:16
# text = They bowed before her, as Roman lads were taught to do, and said, "What is it, mother?"
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	lads	lad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | past | boys *= boy* |  |  |  | before walk |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before she=Location |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | Roman lads |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | Roman lads *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | smile |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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