---
title: But none of them wanted to lose their heads, and so only a few tried… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: But none of them wanted to lose their heads, and so only a few tried for the prize. Who acts: none. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Endless Tale., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Endless Tale., sentence 14

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But none of them wanted to lose their heads, and so only a few tried for the prize.

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**Who acts:** none · **What happens:** want, lose, try · **To what, where:** heads

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Endless Tale.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (none), 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:pg18442:45:14
# text = But none of them wanted to lose their heads, and so only a few tried for the prize.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nmod	_	_
5	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	prize	prize	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | none |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | none *not said here* | stories's heads |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Eventuality |
| 3 | **try** | participle | none *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the prize | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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