The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 13, sentence 95
Would it not be better to turn the prince’s alliance to your advantage by imposing on him some hard task, which, if he performs, will benefit you, and which, if he cannot perform, may give you an honorable pretext for your accusations against him?
Who acts: it, Prince, hard task, your · What happens: not be, turn, impose, perform, benefit, not perform · To what, where: alliance, advantage, hard task, you, honorable pretext
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, 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, Prince, hard task, your), 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 | Would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 better | aux |
| 2 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 better | nsubj |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 better | advmod |
| 4 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 5 better | cop |
| 5 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 turn | mark |
| 7 | turn | turn | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 5 better | csubj |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 prince | det |
| 9 | prince | prince | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 alliance | nmod:poss |
| 10 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 9 prince | case |
| 11 | alliance | alliance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 turn | obj |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 14 advantage | case |
| 13 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 advantage | nmod:poss |
| 14 | advantage | advantage | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 turn | obl |
| 15 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 16 imposing | mark |
| 16 | imposing | impose | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 turn | advcl |
| 17 | on | on | ADP | _ | 18 him | case |
| 18 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 imposing | obl |
| 19 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 21 task | det |
| 20 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 task | amod |
| 21 | task | task | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 imposing | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 benefit | punct |
| 23 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 30 benefit | nsubj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 which | punct |
| 25 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 27 performs | mark |
| 26 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 performs | nsubj |
| 27 | performs | perform | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 30 benefit | advcl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 performs | punct |
| 29 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 30 benefit | aux |
| 30 | benefit | benefit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 task | acl:relcl |
| 31 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 30 benefit | obj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 give | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 give | cc |
| 34 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 43 give | nsubj |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 which | punct |
| 36 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 40 perform | mark |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 perform | nsubj |
| 38 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 40 perform | aux |
| 39 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 40 perform | advmod |
| 40 | perform | perform | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 which | advcl |
| 41 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 which | punct |
| 42 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 43 give | aux |
| 43 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 benefit | conj |
| 44 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 43 give | iobj |
| 45 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 47 pretext | det |
| 46 | honorable | honorable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 pretext | amod |
| 47 | pretext | pretext | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 give | obj |
| 48 | for | for | ADP | _ | 50 accusations | case |
| 49 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 50 accusations | nmod:poss |
| 50 | accusations | accusation | NOUN | Number=Plur | 47 pretext | nmod |
| 51 | against | against | ADP | _ | 52 him | case |
| 52 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 50 accusations | nmod |
| 53 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 better | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is | would | it | good property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | turn | to-infinitive | the prince's alliance | your advantage | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent alliance=Theme to advantage=Trajectory | ||||
| 3 | impose | gerund | some hard task | on Prince | vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Theme | ||||
| 4 | perform a condition, not said to happen | present | Prince | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | benefit | future | some hard task | you | vn benefit-72.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer you=Beneficiary | ||||
| 6 | not perform a condition, not said to happen | can | Prince | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | give | may | a honorable pretext | you | for your accusations against Prince; which nsubj | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent you=Recipient pretext=Theme for accusation=Asset | |||
| 8 | ally | the prince | nom alliance «state transitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 9 | accuse | your | against Prince | nom accusation «communication transitive»: poss=agent against=obl |
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/pg65965/13/95/