---
title: Many boats and ships have been wrecked on that rock; for it is so ne… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Many boats and ships have been wrecked on that rock; for it is so near the top of the water that no vessel can sail over it without striking it. Who acts: rock, vessel. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Inchcape Rock., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Inchcape Rock., sentence 3

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Many boats and ships have been wrecked on that rock; for it is so near the top of the water that no vessel can sail over it without striking it.

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**Who acts:** rock, vessel · **What happens:** wreck, be, sail, strike · **To what, where:** Many boats, rock, top

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Inchcape Rock.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rock, vessel), 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:pg18442:48:3
# text = Many boats and ships have been wrecked on that rock; for it is so near the top of the water that no vessel can sail over it without striking it.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	boats	boat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	wrecked	wreck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	near	near	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	sail	sail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
27	over	over	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	striking	strike	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wreck** | present · perfect · passive |  | Many boats and ships |  | that rock |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | present | rock |  |  | the top |  | of the water | tree rules |
| 3 | **sail** | can | no vessel | the top |  | rock |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent that=Theme over it=Trajectory |
| 4 | **strike** | gerund | no vessel *not said here* | rock |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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