The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 11, sentence 19

The prince called to the crier, and when he had examined the carpet, told him that he could not comprehend how so small a piece of carpet, and of so indifferent an appearance, could be held at so high a price unless it had something very extraordinary in it which he knew nothing of.

Who acts: crier, prince, piece · What happens: call, examine, tell, not comprehend, hold, have · To what, where: prince, crier, carpet, something, nothing · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crier, prince, piece), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 prince	det
2	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 told	nsubj
3	called	call	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 prince	acl
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 crier	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 crier	det
6	crier	crier	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 called	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 examined	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 examined	cc
9	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	12 examined	advmod
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 examined	nsubj
11	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 examined	aux
12	examined	examine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 crier	acl:relcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 carpet	det
14	carpet	carpet	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 examined	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 prince	punct
16	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
17	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 told	iobj
18	that	that	SCONJ	_	22 comprehend	mark
19	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 comprehend	nsubj
20	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	22 comprehend	aux
21	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	22 comprehend	advmod
22	comprehend	comprehend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 told	ccomp
23	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	25 small	advmod
24	so	so	ADV	_	25 small	advmod
25	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 comprehend	ccomp
26	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	27 piece	det
27	piece	piece	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 small	nsubj
28	of	of	ADP	_	29 carpet	case
29	carpet	carpet	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 piece	nmod
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 held	punct
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	40 held	cc
32	of	of	ADP	_	34 indifferent	case
33	so	so	ADV	_	34 indifferent	advmod
34	indifferent	indifferent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 held	obl
35	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	36 appearance	det
36	appearance	appearance	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 indifferent	nsubj
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 indifferent	punct
38	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 held	aux
39	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	40 held	aux:pass
40	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 told	conj
41	at	at	ADP	_	43 high	case
42	so	so	ADV	_	43 high	advmod
43	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 held	xcomp
44	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	45 price	det
45	price	price	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 high	nsubj
46	unless	unless	SCONJ	_	48 had	mark
47	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 had	nsubj
48	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	40 held	advcl
49	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	48 had	obj
50	very	very	ADV	_	51 extraordinary	advmod
51	extraordinary	extraordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	49 something	amod
52	in	in	ADP	_	53 it	case
53	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 extraordinary	obl
54	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	56 knew	obj
55	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	56 knew	nsubj
56	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	49 something	conj
57	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	56 knew	obj
58	of	of	ADP	_	57 nothing	fixed
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 told	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	call	participle		the prince not said here	the crier		vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to crier=Recipient
2	examine	past · perfect	crier	the carpet			vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent carpet=Theme
3	tell speech: assert	past	the prince		crier		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
4	not comprehend	could	crier				vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
5	hold	could · passive	the prince not said here			of indifferent a appearance; high property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»
6	have a condition, not said to happen	past	piece	something			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient
7	know	past	crier	nothing		which obj	tree rules

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.

Text: «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Project Gutenberg book 65965 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/11/19/

🌲 The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 11, sentence 19

The tree

Pragmatics

The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 11, sentence 19