---
title: Then he sent a letter to the Spartans in La-co-ni-a, and said, "If I… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he sent a letter to the Spartans in La-co-ni-a, and said, "If I go down into your country, I will level your great city to the ground." Who acts: Philip. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Laconic Answer., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, A Laconic Answer., sentence 10

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Then he sent a letter to the Spartans in La-co-ni-a, and said, "If I go down into your country, I will level your great city to the ground."

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**Who acts:** Philip · **What happens:** send, say, go down, level · **To what, where:** letter, Spartans, La co ni, country, great city · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Laconic Answer.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Philip), 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:pg18442:35:10
# text = Then he sent a letter to the Spartans in La-co-ni-a, and said, "If I go down into your country, I will level your great city to the ground."
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Spartans	Spartan	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
10	La	La	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	co	co	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	ni	no	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
25	down	down	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	level	level	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
33	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | Philip | a letter | the Spartans | La co ni | then |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent letter=Theme to spartan=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Philip *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go down** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | Philip |  |  | your country |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **level** *in a quote* | future | Philip | your great city |  |  |  | to the ground | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent city=Patient |

<!-- .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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