The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 3, sentence 20

The burden which would have been mine had I allowed these two innocent men to suffer death for a crime that was my own would have been too heavy for me to bear, and I preferred to pay the penalty.”

Who acts: burden, I, these, two innocent men, crime, me · What happens: have, allow, man, suffer, be, bear · To what, where: death, penalty

This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (burden, I, these, two innocent men), 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 burden	det
2	burden	burden	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 had	nsubj
3	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 been	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 been	aux
5	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 been	aux
6	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 burden	acl:relcl
7	mine	my	PRON	Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 been	nsubj
8	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 allowed	nsubj
10	allowed	allow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 had	ccomp
11	these	this	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	14 men	nsubj
12	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 men	nummod
13	innocent	innocent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 men	amod
14	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 heavy	nsubj
15	to	to	PART	_	16 suffer	mark
16	suffer	suffer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 men	acl
17	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 suffer	obj
18	for	for	ADP	_	20 crime	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 crime	det
20	crime	crime	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 suffer	obl
21	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	24 own	nsubj
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 own	cop
23	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	24 own	nmod:poss
24	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 crime	acl:relcl
25	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 heavy	aux
26	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	29 heavy	aux
27	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	29 heavy	cop
28	too	too	ADV	_	29 heavy	advmod
29	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 allowed	ccomp
30	for	for	SCONJ	_	33 bear	mark
31	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	33 bear	nsubj
32	to	to	PART	_	33 bear	mark
33	bear	bear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 heavy	advcl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 preferred	punct
35	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 preferred	cc
36	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	37 preferred	nsubj
37	preferred	prefer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 had	conj
38	to	to	PART	_	39 pay	mark
39	pay	pay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 preferred	xcomp
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 penalty	det
41	penalty	penalty	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 pay	obj
42	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 had	punct
43	”	"	PUNCT	_	8 had	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	have	past	the burden			tree rules
2	allow	past	I			vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer
3	man		these			tree rules
4	suffer	to-infinitive	two innocent men not said here	death	for a crime	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer death=Stimulus for crime=Attribute
5	is	past	a crime		my nmod:poss; own property	tree rules
6	is	would · perfect	two innocent men		heavy property	tree rules
7	bear	to-infinitive	me			vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer
8	prefer	past	I			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
9	pay not said to happen	to-infinitive	I not said here	the penalty		vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent penalty=Asset

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/pg65965/3/20/

🌲 The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 3, sentence 20

The tree

Pragmatics

The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 3, sentence 20