---
title: Then the rich man began to rub his hands as though some one was pour… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the rich man began to rub his hands as though some one was pouring water on them. " Who acts: rich man, one. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Barmecide Feast., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/44/23/)

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Barmecide Feast., sentence 23

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Then the rich man began to rub his hands as though some one was pouring water on them. "

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**Who acts:** rich man, one · **What happens:** begin, rub, pour · **To what, where:** hands, water

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Barmecide Feast.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rich man, one), 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:pg18442:44:23
# text = Then the rich man began to rub his hands as though some one was pouring water on them. "
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	rub	rub	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
11	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	det	_	_
13	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	pouring	pour	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the rich man |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **rub** | to-infinitive | the rich man *not said here* | man's hands |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **pour** | past · progressive | some one | water |  |  |  | on hands *= hand* | vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient |

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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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