---
title: Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay; sometimes he w… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay; sometimes he would take hammer and chisel, and try to cut a statue from a piece of rock. Who acts: lad. 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 8

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Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay; sometimes he would take hammer and chisel, and try to cut a statue from a piece of rock.

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**Who acts:** lad · **What happens:** make, take, try, cut · **To what, where:** little statue, hammer, statue, piece

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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 (lad), 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:pg18442:54:8
# text = Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay; sometimes he would take hammer and chisel, and try to cut a statue from a piece of rock.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	statue	statue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
16	hammer	hammer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	chisel	chisel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	statue	statue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | would | lad | a little statue of soft clay |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent statue=Product |
| 2 | **take** | would | lad | hammer and chisel |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hammer=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | infinitive | lad *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **cut** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | lad *not said here* | a statue |  | a piece of rock |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V PP»: agent=Asset statue=Product from piece=Material |

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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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