---
title: As she desired to dress, the princes contented themselves with telli… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: As she desired to dress, the princes contented themselves with telling her how great a pleasure it was to them to have come soon enough to contribute each in any degree towards relieving her from the imminent danger she was in, and what ardent prayers they had offered for the continuance of her life
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 12, sentence 9

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As she desired to dress, the princes contented themselves with telling her how great a pleasure it was to them to have come soon enough to contribute each in any degree towards relieving her from the imminent danger she was in, and what ardent prayers they had offered for the continuance of her life; after which they retired.

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**Who acts:** princess, princes, pleasure, great pleasure, women, life · **What happens:** desire, dress, content, tell, be, contribute · **To what, where:** women, great pleasure, princess, each, degree, imminent danger · **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 (princess, princes, pleasure, great pleasure), 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:pg65965:12:9
# text = As she desired to dress, the princes contented themselves with telling her how great a pleasure it was to them to have come soon enough to contribute each in any degree towards relieving her from the imminent danger she was in, and what ardent prayers they had offered for the continuance of her life; after which they retired.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	desired	desire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	61	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	dress	dress	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	contented	content	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obj	_	_
11	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
20	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
25	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
26	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	contribute	contribute	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
29	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	32	det	_	_
32	degree	degree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	towards	towards	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
34	relieving	relieve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
35	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	imminent	imminent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
40	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
42	in	in	ADV	RB	_	39	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
45	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	50	obj	_	_
46	ardent	ardent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	prayers	prayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nsubj:pass	_	_
48	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj:pass	_	_
49	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
50	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
51	for	for	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	continuance	continuance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
54	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
56	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
58	after	after	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	61	obl	_	_
60	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
61	retired	retire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	61	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **desire** | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **dress** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **content** | past | the princes | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus themselves=Experiencer |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the princes *not said here* | a great pleasure | princess |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past · perfect | pleasure | a great pleasure *not said here* |  |  |  | women *= woman* *nsubj*; come *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **contribute** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a great pleasure *not said here* | each |  | any degree |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent each=Theme |
| 7 | **relieve** | gerund | a great pleasure *not said here* | princess |  |  |  | from the imminent danger | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer she=Source from danger=Theme |
| 8 | **is** | past | princess | the imminent danger *not said here* |  |  |  | in *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **offer** | past · perfect · passive |  | ardent prayers |  |  |  | for the continuance of princess's life; what *obj*; women *= woman* *nsubj:pass* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: subject=Goal what=Theme |
| 10 | **retire** | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | which *obl* | vn resign-10.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 11 | **continue** |  | princess's life |  |  |  |  |  | nom continuance «act intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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