---
title: At first he thought the crier mad, and asked him what he meant by as… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he thought the crier mad, and asked him what he meant by asking forty purses for that tube which seemed to be a thing of no value. Who acts: crier, tube. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 11, sentence 31

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At first he thought the crier mad, and asked him what he meant by asking forty purses for that tube which seemed to be a thing of no value.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** crier, tube · **What happens:** think, ask, mean, seem, be · **To what, where:** crier, forty purses, thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crier, tube), 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:pg65965:11:31
# text = At first he thought the crier mad, and asked him what he meant by asking forty purses for that tube which seemed to be a thing of no value.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	crier	crier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
15	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
17	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	purses	purse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	tube	tube	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	30	det	_	_
30	value	value	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | crier | the crier |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot crier=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | crier *not said here* |  | crier |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **mean** | past | crier |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | crier *not said here* | forty purses |  |  |  | for that tube | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent purse=Recipient |
| 5 | **seem** | past | that tube |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | to-infinitive | that tube *not said here* | a thing |  |  |  | of no value | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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**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.

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