---
title: His father had bidden him stand there, and he had been taught always… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: His father had bidden him stand there, and he had been taught always to obey. Who acts: father, son. 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 52

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His father had bidden him stand there, and he had been taught always to obey.

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**Who acts:** father, son · **What happens:** bid, stand, teach, obey · **To what, where:** son

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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 (father, son), 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:pg18442:53:52
# text = His father had bidden him stand there, and he had been taught always to obey.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
14	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	16	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bid** | past · perfect | son's father | son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | infinitive | son's father *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | son |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **obey** | to-infinitive | son *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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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