---
title: But he was mistaken, for it was a mechanical toy, an artificial Nigh… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: But he was mistaken, for it was a mechanical toy, an artificial Nightingale which looked something like a real bird but was covered with jewels. Who acts: EMPEROR, parcel, artificial Nightingale. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, par
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/167/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jade Story Book; Stories from the…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/) / 167

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 1, sentence 167

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he was mistaken, for it was a mechanical toy, an artificial Nightingale which looked something like a real bird but was covered with jewels.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** EMPEROR, parcel, artificial Nightingale · **What happens:** be, look, cover · **To what, where:** something

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (EMPEROR, parcel, artificial Nightingale), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:1:175
# text = But he was mistaken, for it was a mechanical toy, an artificial Nightingale which looked something like a real bird but was covered with jewels.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	mistaken	mistaken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	mechanical	mechanical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	toy	toy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	artificial	artificial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Nightingale	nightingale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	jewels	jewel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | EMPEROR |  |  |  |  | mistaken *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | parcel |  |  |  |  | for a mechanical toy and a artificial Nightingale; a artificial Nightingale *conj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** | past | a artificial Nightingale | something |  |  |  | like a real bird | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme something=Attribute |
| 4 | **cover** | past · passive | a artificial Nightingale *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with jewels | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: with jewel=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 166](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/166/)
- next →: [sentence 168](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/168/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/)