---
title: So, as he walked among the trees, he often stopped to listen to the… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: So, as he walked among the trees, he often stopped to listen to the singing birds, or to look at the wild flowers that grew on every side. Who acts: king, wild flowers. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Kingdoms., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Kingdoms., sentence 4

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So, as he walked among the trees, he often stopped to listen to the singing birds, or to look at the wild flowers that grew on every side.

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**Who acts:** king, wild flowers · **What happens:** walk, stop, listen, sing, look, grow · **To what, where:** trees, side

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Kingdoms.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, wild flowers), 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:pg18442:43:4
# text = So, as he walked among the trees, he often stopped to listen to the singing birds, or to look at the wild flowers that grew on every side.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	often	often	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	amod	_	_
18	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	wild	wild	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	det	_	_
31	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past | king |  |  | the trees |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among tree=Trajectory |
| 2 | **stop** | past | king |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **listen** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the singing birds | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to bird=Theme |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the wild flowers | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at flower=Theme |
| 6 | **grow** | past | the wild flowers |  |  | every side |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on side=Location |

<!-- .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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