---
title: The people had never seen any white men before, and they came in gre… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The people had never seen any white men before, and they came in great crowds to buy the fine things with which the ship was loaded. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, IV. the Cat., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, IV. the Cat., sentence 2

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The people had never seen any white men before, and they came in great crowds to buy the fine things with which the ship was loaded.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** not see, come in, buy, load · **To what, where:** white men, great crowds, fine things, ship

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, IV. the Cat.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), 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:pg18442:52:2
# text = The people had never seen any white men before, and they came in great crowds to buy the fine things with which the ship was loaded.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
7	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	before	before	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	crowds	crowd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	obl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	loaded	load	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | the people | any white men |  |  |  | before *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come in** | past | people | great crowds |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location crowd=Theme |
| 3 | **buy** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | the fine things |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 4 | **load** | past · passive |  | the ship |  |  |  | with the fine things | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: subject=Destination with which=Theme |

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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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