---
title: He had been taught to read and write, and for that reason he was nic… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: He had been taught to read and write, and for that reason he was nick-named Beau-clerc, or the Hand-some Schol-ar. Who acts: brother, Hand. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Sons of William the Conqueror., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Sons of William the Conqueror., sentence 23

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He had been taught to read and write, and for that reason he was nick-named Beau-clerc, or the Hand-some Schol-ar.

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**Who acts:** brother, Hand · **What happens:** teach, read, write, name, ar · **To what, where:** brother

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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 (brother, Hand), 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:pg18442:6:23
# text = He had been taught to read and write, and for that reason he was nick-named Beau-clerc, or the Hand-some Schol-ar.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
16	nick	nick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
19	Beau	Beau	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	clerc	clerc	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
25	Hand	Hand	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
28	Schol	schol	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	ar	AR	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **teach** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | brother |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **read** | to-infinitive | brother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **write** | infinitive | brother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **name** | past · passive |  | brother |  |  |  | for that reason | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **ar** |  | Hand |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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