---
title: When the sorceress had finished her speech, the sultan asked his cou… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: When the sorceress had finished her speech, the sultan asked his councillors if they had anything better to propose; and finding them all silent, determined to follow her advice. Who acts: sultan, councillors, her. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Cou
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/14/1/)

<!-- 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 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/14/) / 1

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 14, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the sorceress had finished her speech, the sultan asked his councillors if they had anything better to propose; and finding them all silent, determined to follow her advice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sultan, councillors, her · **What happens:** finish, ask, have, propose, find, follow · **To what, where:** sorceress, councillors, anything, advice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sultan, councillors, her), 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:pg65965:14:1
# text = When the sorceress had finished her speech, the sultan asked his councillors if they had anything better to propose; and finding them all silent, determined to follow her advice.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sorceress	sorceress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	councillors	councillor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
17	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	16	obj	_	_
18	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	amod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	propose	propose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	finding	find	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	obj	_	_
26	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	determined	determined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect · passive |  | the sorceress |  |  |  | her speech *obj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the sultan | sultan's councillors |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent councillor=Recipient |
| 3 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | councillors *= councillor* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Patient |
| 4 | **propose** | to-infinitive | councillors *= councillor* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **find** | gerund |  | councillors *= councillor* |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent they=Theme all=Attribute |
| 6 | **follow** | to-infinitive | councillors *= councillor* *not said here* | her advice |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advice=Theme |
| 7 | **speak** |  | her *= she* |  |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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: [Opening, part 13, 96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/13/96/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/14/2/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/14/)