---
title: As he pulled, John commenced to rise from his seat. — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: As he pulled, John commenced to rise from his seat. Who acts: man, 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.
---

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# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 7

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As he pulled, John commenced to rise from his seat.

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**Who acts:** man, John · **What happens:** pull, commence, rise · **To what, where:** seat

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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 (man, John), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76586:13:7
# text = As he pulled, John commenced to rise from his seat.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	commenced	commence	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	seat	seat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **commence** | past | John |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **rise** | to-infinitive | John *not said here* |  |  | man's seat |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from seat=Initial\_Location |

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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:** «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.

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