---
title: When I should have measured nature, I but looked to vanity. — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: When I should have measured nature, I but looked to vanity. Who acts: I. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Basket Maker., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Basket Maker., sentence 27

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When I should have measured nature, I but looked to vanity.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** measure, look · **To what, where:** nature

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Basket Maker.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg62868:11:27
# text = When I should have measured nature, I but looked to vanity.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
5	measured	measure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	vanity	vanity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **measure** | should · perfect | I | nature |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme nature=Value |
| 2 | **look** | past | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to vanity | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to vanity=Theme |

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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:** «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Project Gutenberg book 62868 (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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