---
title: Thousands of years have passed since then; but men still like to tel… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Thousands of years have passed since then; but men still like to tell the story of Leonidas and the brave three hundred who died for their country's sake. Who acts: men, brave three hundred. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Brave Three Hundred., with its dependency t
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Brave Three Hundred., sentence 30

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Thousands of years have passed since then; but men still like to tell the story of Leonidas and the brave three hundred who died for their country's sake.

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**Who acts:** men, brave three hundred · **What happens:** pass, like, tell, die · **To what, where:** Thousands, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Brave Three Hundred.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, brave three hundred), 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:pg18442:39:30
# text = Thousands of years have passed since then; but men still like to tell the story of Leonidas and the brave three hundred who died for their country's sake.
1	Thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	since	since	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	still	still	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Leonidas	Leonidas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	compound	_	_
23	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nsubj	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	sake	sake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | present · perfect · passive |  | Thousands of years |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 2 | **like** | present | men |  |  |  | still |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | men *not said here* | the story of Leonidas |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |
| 4 | **die** | past | the brave three hundred |  |  |  |  | for men's country's sake | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for sake=Theme |

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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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