---
title: Wilhelm went on; but he could not help wondering about the child, an… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Wilhelm went on; but he could not help wondering about the child, and thinking of her dark eyes and strange ways. Who acts: Wilhelm. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Antonio Canova., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Antonio Canova., sentence 170

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Wilhelm went on; but he could not help wondering about the child, and thinking of her dark eyes and strange ways.

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**Who acts:** Wilhelm · **What happens:** go on, not help, wonder, think

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Antonio Canova.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wilhelm), 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:pg18442:54:170
# text = Wilhelm went on; but he could not help wondering about the child, and thinking of her dark eyes and strange ways.
1	Wilhelm	Wilhelm	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
10	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	xcomp	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past | Wilhelm |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **help** | could | Wilhelm |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* *not said to happen* | gerund | Wilhelm *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the child | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus what S»: agent=Experiencer about child=Stimulus |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | Wilhelm *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of MIGNON's dark eyes and strange ways | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: 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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