---
title: His home was far away, and he wanted very much to see his father and… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: His home was far away, and he wanted very much to see his father and mother and friends before he died. Who acts: home, man. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Damon and Pythias., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Damon and Pythias., sentence 3

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His home was far away, and he wanted very much to see his father and mother and friends before he died.

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**Who acts:** home, man · **What happens:** be, want, see, die · **To what, where:** father

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Damon and Pythias.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (home, man), 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:pg18442:34:3
# text = His home was far away, and he wanted very much to see his father and mother and friends before he died.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	much	much	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
20	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | man's home |  |  |  |  | away, far *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man's father and mother and friends |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer father=Stimulus |
| 4 | **die** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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