---
title: The best artists in the land were em-ployed to teach him the art in… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: The best artists in the land were em-ployed to teach him the art in which he had shown so much skill; but now, instead of carving butter, he chis-eled marble. Who acts: best artists, artist, chis. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Antonio Canova., with its dependency tree
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Antonio Canova., sentence 66

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The best artists in the land were em-ployed to teach him the art in which he had shown so much skill; but now, instead of carving butter, he chis-eled marble.

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**Who acts:** best artists, artist, chis · **What happens:** be, teach, show, carve, chi, el · **To what, where:** art, artist, much skill, butter, marble

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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 (best artists, artist, chis), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg18442:54:66
# text = The best artists in the land were em-ployed to teach him the art in which he had shown so much skill; but now, instead of carving butter, he chis-eled marble.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	artists	artist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	em-ployed	em-ployed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	shown	show	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	28	mark	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	carving	carve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
29	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	chis	chi	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	eled	el	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	acl	_	_
35	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the best artists in the land |  |  |  |  | em-ployed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the best artists in the land *not said here* | the art | artist |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient art=Topic |
| 3 | **show** | past · perfect | artist | much skill |  |  |  | in the art | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent skill=Patient in which=Topic |
| 4 | **carve** | gerund | the best artists in the land *not said here* | butter |  |  | now |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent butter=Theme |
| 5 | **chi** |  | artist |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **el** | participle | chis *not said here* | marble |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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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- ↑ back to [Antonio Canova.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/54/)