---
title: We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repe… — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repentance; and wish, but too often vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue. Who acts: We. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Obidah., with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Story of Obidah., sentence 38

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We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repentance; and wish, but too often vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue.

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**Who acts:** We · **What happens:** look back, wish, not forsake · **To what, where:** ways

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Obidah.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We), 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:pg62868:21:38
# text = We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repentance; and wish, but too often vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	look	look	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	repentance	repentance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	too	too	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	often	often	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	vainly	vainly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	forsaken	forsake	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	virtue	virtue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look back** | present | We |  |  |  | then | upon our lives; with horror and sorrow and repentance | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon life=Theme |
| 2 | **wish** | present |  |  |  |  |  | vainly wish *ccomp* | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **not** **forsake** | past · perfect | we | the ways of virtue |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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