---
title: "Did you ever see so handsome a lady as our mother's friend?" asked… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "Did you ever see so handsome a lady as our mother's friend?" asked the younger boy, holding his tall brother's hand. " Who acts: you, younger boy. 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 4

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"Did you ever see so handsome a lady as our mother's friend?" asked the younger boy, holding his tall brother's hand. "

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**Who acts:** you, younger boy · **What happens:** see, ask, hold · **To what, where:** handsome lady, hand · **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 (you, younger boy), 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:pg18442:29:4
# text = "Did you ever see so handsome a lady as our mother's friend?" asked the younger boy, holding his tall brother's hand. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
5	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
17	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	younger	young	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	amod	_	_
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** *in a quote* | past · do-support | you | a handsome lady |  |  | ever | as our mother's friend | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer lady=Stimulus as friend=Attribute |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the younger boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hold** | gerund | the younger boy *not said here* | friend's tall brother's hand |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=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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