---
title: The people of Greece were not u-nit-ed like the Romans; but instead… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The people of Greece were not u-nit-ed like the Romans; but instead there were sev-er-al states, each of which had its own rulers. Who acts: people, sev, er al states. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Laconic Answer., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/35/2/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fifty Famous Stories Retold](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/) / [A Laconic Answer.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/35/) / 2

# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, A Laconic Answer., sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The people of Greece were not u-nit-ed like the Romans; but instead there were sev-er-al states, each of which had its own rulers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, sev, er al states · **What happens:** not be, be, have · **To what, where:** u nit ed, er al states, own rulers

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (people, sev, er al states), 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:pg18442:35:2
# text = The people of Greece were not u-nit-ed like the Romans; but instead there were sev-er-al states, each of which had its own rulers.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Greece	Greece	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
7	u	u	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	nit	nit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	ed	ed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Romans	Roman	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
20	sev	sev	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	er	er	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	al	Al	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	states	state	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	nsubj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nmod	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
31	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	rulers	ruler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | the people of Greece | u nit ed |  |  |  | like the Romans | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | sev | er al states |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | er al states | sev's own rulers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ruler=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/35/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/35/3/)
- ↑ back to [A Laconic Answer.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/35/)