---
title: Then, with their shields before them, and their long spears in their… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, with their shields before them, and their long spears in their hands, the three brave men stood in the road, and kept back the horsemen whom Porsena had sent to take the bridge. Who acts: shields, Porsena. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Horatius At the Bridge., w
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Horatius At the Bridge., sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then, with their shields before them, and their long spears in their hands, the three brave men stood in the road, and kept back the horsemen whom Porsena had sent to take the bridge.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shields, Porsena · **What happens:** stand, keep back, send, take · **To what, where:** road, horsemen, bridge

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Horatius At the Bridge.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shields, Porsena), 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:pg18442:31:14
# text = Then, with their shields before them, and their long spears in their hands, the three brave men stood in the road, and kept back the horsemen whom Porsena had sent to take the bridge.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	shields	shield	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
21	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
28	back	back	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	horsemen	horseman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
31	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	obj	_	_
32	Porsena	Porsena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	acl:relcl	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | men's shields before men and men's long spears in men's hands and the three brave men |  |  | the road | then |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in road=Location |
| 2 | **keep back** | past | men's shields before men and men's long spears in men's hands and the three brave men *not said here* | the horsemen |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horseman=Theme |
| 3 | **send** | past · perfect | Porsena | the horsemen |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | to-infinitive | Porsena *not said here* | the bridge |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridge=Theme |

<!-- .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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