---
title: The great king had sent mes-sen-gers into every city and state, bidd… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The great king had sent mes-sen-gers into every city and state, bidding them give him water and earth in token that the land and the sea were his. Who acts: great king, water. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Brave Three Hundred., with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Brave Three Hundred., sentence 4

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The great king had sent mes-sen-gers into every city and state, bidding them give him water and earth in token that the land and the sea were his.

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**Who acts:** great king, water · **What happens:** send, bid, give, be · **To what, where:** mes, city, gers, water, King

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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 (great king, water), 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:pg18442:39:4
# text = The great king had sent mes-sen-gers into every city and state, bidding them give him water and earth in token that the land and the sea were his.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	mes	me	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	sen	sen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	gers	ger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	bidding	bid	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	token	token	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past · perfect | the great king | mes |  | every city and state |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent me=Destination ger=Theme |
| 2 | **bid** | gerund | the great king *not said here* | gers *= ger* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | infinitive | the great king *not said here* | water and earth in token | King |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient water=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | water and earth in token *not said here* | King |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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