---
title: Once when Schac-a-bac had not had anything to eat for a long time, h… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Once when Schac-a-bac had not had anything to eat for a long time, he thought that he would go and ask the Bar-me-cide to help him. Who acts: Schac. 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/pg18442/44/7/)

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Barmecide Feast., sentence 7

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Once when Schac-a-bac had not had anything to eat for a long time, he thought that he would go and ask the Bar-me-cide to help him.

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**Who acts:** Schac · **What happens:** not have, eat, think, go, ask, help · **To what, where:** anything, Bar cide, Schac · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Schac), 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:pg18442:44:7
# text = Once when Schac-a-bac had not had anything to eat for a long time, he thought that he would go and ask the Bar-me-cide to help him.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	10	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
3	Schac	Schac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	bac	bac	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
11	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
28	Bar	bar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	cide	cide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **have** | past · perfect | Schac | anything |  |  |  | once *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Patient |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | Schac *not said here* | anything *not said here* |  |  | time |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Schac |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | would | Schac |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | Schac *not said here* | the Bar cide |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent cide=Recipient |
| 6 | **help** | to-infinitive | Schac *not said here* |  | Schac |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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