---
title: "The plan is well worth trying, at least," said the king. " — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "The plan is well worth trying, at least," said the king. " Who acts: plan, king. 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 8

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"The plan is well worth trying, at least," said the king. "

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**Who acts:** plan, king · **What happens:** be, try, say · **To what, where:** least · **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 (plan, king), 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:pg18442:6:8
# text = "The plan is well worth trying, at least," said the king. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the plan |  |  | least |  | well, worth *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** *in a quote* | gerund | the plan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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