---
title: One day King Wil-liam seemed to be thinking of something that made h… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: One day King Wil-liam seemed to be thinking of something that made him feel very sad; and the wise men who were about him asked him what was the matter. Who acts: King liam, liam, wise men. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Sons of William the Conqueror., with its dep
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Sons of William the Conqueror., sentence 2

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One day King Wil-liam seemed to be thinking of something that made him feel very sad; and the wise men who were about him asked him what was the matter.

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**Who acts:** King liam, liam, wise men · **What happens:** seem, think, make, feel, ask, be · **To what, where:** liam, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Sons of William the Conqueror.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King liam, liam, wise men), 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:pg18442:6:2
# text = One day King Wil-liam seemed to be thinking of something that made him feel very sad; and the wise men who were about him asked him what was the matter.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
4	Wil	Wil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	liam	liam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux	_	_
10	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	xcomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obl	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	about	about	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	_
28	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	iobj	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	33	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | King liam |  |  |  | day |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive · progressive | King liam *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of something | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **make** | past |  | liam |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **feel** | infinitive | liam *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the wise men |  | liam |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 6 | **is a** | past |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | 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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