---
title: The sultan said to the sorceress, “Canst thou tell me by thy art and… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: The sultan said to the sorceress, “Canst thou tell me by thy art and skill what is become of Prince Ahmed my son? Who acts: sultan, thou. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 12, sentence 72

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The sultan said to the sorceress, “Canst thou tell me by thy art and skill what is become of Prince Ahmed my son?

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**Who acts:** sultan, thou · **What happens:** say, tell, become · **To what, where:** sorceress, son, skill · **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 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sultan, thou), 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:pg65965:12:72
# text = The sultan said to the sorceress, “Canst thou tell me by thy art and skill what is become of Prince Ahmed my son?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sorceress	sorceress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Canst	can	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nsubj	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	Ahmed	Ahmed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the sultan |  | the sorceress |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to sorceress=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | thou |  | my son |  |  | by thy art and skill; me *iobj* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient son=Topic |
| 3 | **become** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | skill |  |  |  | of Prince Ahmed | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

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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:** «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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