---
title: "It is a pity to ruin so fine a horse as that," said Al-ex-an'der, t… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "It is a pity to ruin so fine a horse as that," said Al-ex-an'der, the king's young son. " Who acts: bade. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Alexander and Bucephalus., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Alexander and Bucephalus., sentence 6

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"It is a pity to ruin so fine a horse as that," said Al-ex-an'der, the king's young son. "

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**Who acts:** bade · **What happens:** be, ruin, say · **To what, where:** pity, fine · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Alexander and Bucephalus.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bade), 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:pg18442:37:6
# text = "It is a pity to ruin so fine a horse as that," said Al-ex-an'der, the king's young son. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	ruin	ruin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	Al	Al	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	ex	ex	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	an'der	an'der	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | bade | a pity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ruin** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | fine |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fine=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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