---
title: There were so many of them, and they were so bold and strong, that f… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: There were so many of them, and they were so bold and strong, that for a long time they gained every battle. Who acts: many, people. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, King Alfred and the Cakes., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, King Alfred and the Cakes., sentence 7

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There were so many of them, and they were so bold and strong, that for a long time they gained every battle.

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**Who acts:** many, people · **What happens:** be, gain · **To what, where:** battle

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, King Alfred and the Cakes.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (many, people), 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:pg18442:3:7
# text = There were so many of them, and they were so bold and strong, that for a long time they gained every battle.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	bold	bold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	conj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	gained	gain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | many of people |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | people |  |  |  |  | bold *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **gain** | past | people | every battle |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent battle=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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