---
title: "What shall we do?" said the white-haired Fathers who made the laws… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "What shall we do?" said the white-haired Fathers who made the laws for the Roman people. " Who acts: we, white haired Fathers. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Horatius At the Bridge., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Horatius At the Bridge., sentence 8

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"What shall we do?" said the white-haired Fathers who made the laws for the Roman people. "

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**Who acts:** we, white haired Fathers · **What happens:** do, say, make · **To what, where:** laws · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (we, white haired Fathers), 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:pg18442:31:8
# text = "What shall we do?" said the white-haired Fathers who made the laws for the Roman people. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	haired	haired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	laws	law	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | shall | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the white haired Fathers |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **make** | past | the white haired Fathers | the laws |  |  |  | for the Roman people | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent law=Product for people=Beneficiary |

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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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