---
title: The driver asked him some questions; and when he learned how poor Di… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The driver asked him some questions; and when he learned how poor Dick was, and that he had neither father nor mother, he told him that he might do as he liked. Who acts: driver. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the City., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/49/12/)

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, I. the City., sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The driver asked him some questions; and when he learned how poor Dick was, and that he had neither father nor mother, he told him that he might do as he liked.

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**Who acts:** driver · **What happens:** ask, be, have, tell, do, like · **To what, where:** questions, lad, father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the City.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (driver), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg18442:49:12
# text = The driver asked him some questions; and when he learned how poor Dick was, and that he had neither father nor mother, he told him that he might do as he liked.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	driver	driver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	learned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
13	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	Dick	Dick	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	22	cc:preconj	_	_
22	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	24	cc	_	_
24	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the driver | some questions | lad |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | driver |  |  |  |  | learn *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | driver | father nor mother |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent father=Patient |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | driver |  | lad |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** *not said to happen* | might | driver |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **like** | past | driver |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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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