---
title: Here was a great school, called a u-ni-ver'si-ty, and he wanted to s… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: Here was a great school, called a u-ni-ver'si-ty, and he wanted to see if any of the wise pro-fess-ors could help him. Who acts: u ni, head, any. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the Three Questions., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, I. the Three Questions., sentence 29

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Here was a great school, called a u-ni-ver'si-ty, and he wanted to see if any of the wise pro-fess-ors could help him.

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**Who acts:** u ni, head, any · **What happens:** be, call, ty, want, see, help · **To what, where:** great school, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (u ni, head, any), 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:pg18442:9:29
# text = Here was a great school, called a u-ni-ver'si-ty, and he wanted to see if any of the wise pro-fess-ors could help him.
1	Here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
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	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	u	u	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	ni	no	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	ver'si	ver'si	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	ty	ty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
23	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	pro-fess-ors	pro-fess-or	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	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 |  | a great school |  | here |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a great school *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ty** |  | a u ni |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **want** | past | head |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | head *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **help** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | any |  | head |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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