---
title: One day a poor woman asked Doctor Goldsmith to go and see her husban… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: One day a poor woman asked Doctor Goldsmith to go and see her husband, who was sick and could not eat. Who acts: poor woman, husband. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Doctor Goldsmith., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Doctor Goldsmith., sentence 7

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One day a poor woman asked Doctor Goldsmith to go and see her husband, who was sick and could not eat.

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**Who acts:** poor woman, husband · **What happens:** ask, go, see, be, not eat · **To what, where:** Doctor, husband

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Doctor Goldsmith.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor woman, husband), 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:pg18442:42:7
# text = One day a poor woman asked Doctor Goldsmith to go and see her husband, who was sick and could not eat.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Doctor	Doctor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	iobj	_	_
8	Goldsmith	Goldsmith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	flat	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a poor woman |  | Doctor |  | day |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent doctor=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a poor woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | infinitive | a poor woman *not said here* | Doctor's husband |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer husband=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | Doctor's husband |  |  |  |  | sick *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **eat** | could | Doctor's husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: 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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