---
title: But he thought that he ought to do as he was bidden; and so, like th… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: But he thought that he ought to do as he was bidden; and so, like the Barmecide, he made a pretense of washing. Who acts: Schacabac, Barmecide. 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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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Barmecide Feast., sentence 26

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But he thought that he ought to do as he was bidden; and so, like the Barmecide, he made a pretense of washing.

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**Who acts:** Schacabac, Barmecide · **What happens:** think, do, bid, make, pretend · **To what, where:** Schacabac, pretense, washing

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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 (Schacabac, Barmecide), 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:pg18442:44:26
# text = But he thought that he ought to do as he was bidden; and so, like the Barmecide, he made a pretense of washing.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Barmecide	barmecide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pretense	pretense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	washing	washing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Schacabac |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | ought | Schacabac |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **bid** | past · passive |  | Schacabac |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | past | the Barmecide | a pretense of washing |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset pretense=Product |
| 5 | **pretend** |  |  | washing |  |  |  |  | nom pretense «act transitive»: of=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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