---
title: "It is a pity," he said, "that so many brave sailors should lose the… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "It is a pity," he said, "that so many brave sailors should lose their lives on that hidden rock." Who acts: rock, Ab, that. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Inchcape Rock., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Inchcape Rock., sentence 5

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"It is a pity," he said, "that so many brave sailors should lose their lives on that hidden rock."

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**Who acts:** rock, Ab, that · **What happens:** be, say, lose · **To what, where:** pity, lives, hidden rock · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, Ab, that), 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:pg18442:48:5
# text = "It is a pity," he said, "that so many brave sailors should lose their lives on that hidden rock."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	nsubj	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	sailors	sailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
23	hidden	hidden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | rock | a pity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Ab |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **lose** *in a quote* | should | that | sailors's lives |  | that hidden rock |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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