---
title: It seemed as if for once the sable dentist was to be baffled in his… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed as if for once the sable dentist was to be baffled in his aim. Who acts: It, John. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/13/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Negro myths from the Georgia coast, to…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/) / [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/13/) / 11

# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed as if for once the sable dentist was to be baffled in his aim.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, John · **What happens:** seem, baffle, aim · **To what, where:** sable dentist, aim

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, John), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76586:13:11
# text = It seemed as if for once the sable dentist was to be baffled in his aim.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
6	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	sable	sable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	dentist	dentist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	baffled	baffle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **baffle** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | the sable dentist |  | John's aim |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 3 | **aim** |  | John |  |  |  |  |  | nom aim «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Project Gutenberg book 76586 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/13/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/13/12/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/13/)