The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 15, sentence 91

Mr. Le, the elder of the two, had been asked to leave the last position he held because it was his custom to levy blackmail whenever he could do so, and he was also charged, let us hope unjustly, with having inflicted torture upon those unfortunate ones who could not, or would not, meet his demands.

Who acts: Le, position, us · What happens: ask, leave, hold, be, levy, do · To what, where: Le, last position, custom, blackmail, us, inflicted torture

This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Le, position, us), 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	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Le	nmod:desc
2	Le	Le	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 asked	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 elder	punct
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 elder	det
5	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 Le	appos
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 two	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 two	det
8	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 elder	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Le	punct
10	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 asked	aux
11	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	12 asked	aux:pass
12	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
13	to	to	PART	_	14 leave	mark
14	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 asked	xcomp
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 position	det
16	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 position	amod
17	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 leave	obj
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 held	nsubj
19	held	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 position	acl:relcl
20	because	because	SCONJ	_	24 custom	mark
21	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 custom	nsubj
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 custom	cop
23	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	24 custom	nmod:poss
24	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 held	advcl
25	to	to	PART	_	26 levy	mark
26	levy	levy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 held	advcl
27	blackmail	blackmail	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 levy	obj
28	whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	31 do	advmod
29	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 do	nsubj
30	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	31 do	aux
31	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 levy	conj
32	so	so	ADV	_	31 do	advmod
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 charged	punct
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 charged	cc
35	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 charged	nsubj:pass
36	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 charged	aux:pass
37	also	also	ADV	_	38 charged	advmod
38	charged	charge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 asked	conj
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 let	punct
40	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 charged	advcl
41	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	40 let	obj
42	hope	hope	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	40 let	xcomp
43	unjustly	unjustly	ADV	_	42 hope	advmod
44	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 having	punct
45	with	with	SCONJ	_	46 having	mark
46	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	42 hope	advcl
47	inflicted	inflict	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	48 torture	amod
48	torture	torture	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 having	obj
49	upon	upon	ADP	_	52 ones	case
50	those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	52 ones	det
51	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	52 ones	amod
52	ones	one	NOUN	Number=Plur	46 having	obl
53	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	54 could	nsubj
54	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	52 ones	acl:relcl
55	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	54 could	advmod
56	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 meet	punct
57	or	or	CCONJ	_	61 meet	cc
58	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	61 meet	aux
59	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	61 meet	advmod
60	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 not	punct
61	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 asked	conj
62	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	63 demands	nmod:poss
63	demands	demand	NOUN	Number=Plur	61 meet	obj
64	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 asked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past · perfect · passive		Le Mr.		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	leave not said to happen	to-infinitive	Le Mr. not said here	the last position		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Theme
3	hold	past	Le	the last position not said here		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Theme
4	is a	past	position	Le's custom	Le nmod:poss	tree rules
5	levy	to-infinitive	Le not said here	blackmail		tree rules
6	do	could	Le		whenever property	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	charge	past · passive		Le		vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme
8	let	infinitive		us		tree rules
9	hope	infinitive	us not said here		unjustly property	vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot
10	have	gerund	us not said here	inflicted torture	upon that unfortunate ones	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent torture=Patient
11	inflict	participle				tree rules
12	not meet	would		Le's demands		vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent demand=Co-Agent
13	demand		Le			nom demand «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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/pg65965/15/91/

🌲 The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 15, sentence 91

The tree

Pragmatics

The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 15, sentence 91