---
title: Sometimes he had no break-fast, and sometimes he had no dinner; and… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes he had no break-fast, and sometimes he had no dinner; and he was glad at any time to get a crust of bread or a drop of milk. Who acts: Dick. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the City., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, I. the City., sentence 4

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Sometimes he had no break-fast, and sometimes he had no dinner; and he was glad at any time to get a crust of bread or a drop of milk.

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**Who acts:** Dick · **What happens:** have, be, get · **To what, where:** break, dinner, crust

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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 (Dick), 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:pg18442:49:4
# text = Sometimes he had no break-fast, and sometimes he had no dinner; and he was glad at any time to get a crust of bread or a drop of milk.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	break	break	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	crust	crust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Dick | no break |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent break=Patient |
| 2 | **have** | past | Dick | no dinner |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Dick |  |  |  | time | glad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive | Dick *not said here* | a crust of bread or a drop of milk |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer crust=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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