---
title: When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him. Who acts: great beast, phants, driver. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Blind Men and the Elephant., with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Blind Men and the Elephant., sentence 4

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When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him.

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**Who acts:** great beast, phants, driver · **What happens:** tell, be, ask, let, stop, see · **To what, where:** phants, driver · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Blind Men and the Elephant.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great beast, phants, driver), 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:pg18442:46:4
# text = When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	driver	driver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	25	mark	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | phants *= phant* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient they=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past | the great beast |  |  |  | before men *= man* |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | phants *= phant* |  | the driver |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent driver=Recipient |
| 4 | **let** | to-infinitive | phants *= phant* *not said here* | driver |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **stop** | infinitive | driver *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **see** | might | phants *= phant* | driver |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

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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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