---
title: One summer he built himself a house, but it was so small that his ne… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: One summer he built himself a house, but it was so small that his neighbors wondered how he could be content with it. Who acts: man, house, neighbors. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Socrates and His House., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Socrates and His House., sentence 3

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One summer he built himself a house, but it was so small that his neighbors wondered how he could be content with it.

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**Who acts:** man, house, neighbors · **What happens:** build, be, wonder · **To what, where:** man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Socrates and His House.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, house, neighbors), 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:pg18442:40:3
# text = One summer he built himself a house, but it was so small that his neighbors wondered how he could be content with it.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
22	content	content	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | past | man | man |  |  | summer |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset himself=Beneficiary house=Product |
| 2 | **is** | past | house |  |  |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | man's neighbors |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | could | man |  |  |  |  | with house; content *property* | tree rules |

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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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