---
title: "What is the reason," said they, "that you, who are so great a man,… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "What is the reason," said they, "that you, who are so great a man, should build such a little box as this for your dwelling house?" Who acts: you, neighbors. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Socrates and His House., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Socrates and His House., sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"What is the reason," said they, "that you, who are so great a man, should build such a little box as this for your dwelling house?"

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**Who acts:** you, neighbors · **What happens:** be, say, build · **To what, where:** reason, little box · **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 (you, 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:pg18442:40:4
# text = "What is the reason," said they, "that you, who are so great a man, should build such a little box as this for your dwelling house?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
24	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	27	det:predet	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obl	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the reason |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | great *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **build** *in a quote* | should | neighbors *= neighbor* | such little box |  |  |  | as this; for your dwelling house | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent box=Material for house=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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