---
title: He was a bad king; for he was harsh and cruel to his people, and so… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a bad king; for he was harsh and cruel to his people, and so long as he could have his own way, he did not care what became of other folks. Who acts: king. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the Three Questions., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, I. the Three Questions., sentence 2

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He was a bad king; for he was harsh and cruel to his people, and so long as he could have his own way, he did not care what became of other folks.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** be, have, not care, become · **To what, where:** bad king, own way

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the Three Questions.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg18442:9:2
# text = He was a bad king; for he was harsh and cruel to his people, and so long as he could have his own way, he did not care what became of other folks.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	harsh	harsh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
32	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	33	nsubj	_	_
33	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	ccomp	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	folks	folk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | king | a bad king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | harsh, long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to king's people | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | could | king | king's own way |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **care** | past · do-support | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **become** | past |  |  |  |  |  | of other folks | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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