---
title: Dick was scouring the pots when word was brought to him that he shou… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Dick was scouring the pots when word was brought to him that he should go to the office. Who acts: Dick, Mr.. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, V. the Fortune., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, V. the Fortune., sentence 14

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Dick was scouring the pots when word was brought to him that he should go to the office.

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**Who acts:** Dick, Mr. · **What happens:** scour, bring, go · **To what, where:** pots, word, Mr., office

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, V. the Fortune.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dick, Mr.), 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:pg18442:53:14
# text = Dick was scouring the pots when word was brought to him that he should go to the office.
1	Dick	Dick	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	scouring	scour	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scour** | past · progressive | Dick | the pots |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent pot=Source |
| 2 | **bring** | past · passive |  | word | Mr. |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to he=Destination |
| 3 | **go** | should | Mr. |  |  | the office |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to office=Initial\_Location |

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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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