---
title: After much pressing, Ahmed confessed that the sultan had discovered… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: After much pressing, Ahmed confessed that the sultan had discovered his abode and his marriage with the fairy, though he could not tell by what means. Who acts: Ahmed. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 14, sentence 18

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After much pressing, Ahmed confessed that the sultan had discovered his abode and his marriage with the fairy, though he could not tell by what means.

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**Who acts:** Ahmed · **What happens:** press, confess, discover, not tell, mean, marry · **To what, where:** sultan · **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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ahmed), 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:pg65965:14:18
# text = After much pressing, Ahmed confessed that the sultan had discovered his abode and his marriage with the fairy, though he could not tell by what means.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	pressing	press	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	Ahmed	Ahmed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	confessed	confess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	discovered	discover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	ccomp	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	abode	abode	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
26	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
28	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **press** | gerund | Ahmed *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **confess** | past | Ahmed |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **discover** | past · perfect · passive |  | the sultan |  |  |  | Ahmed's abode and Ahmed's marriage with the fairy *obj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | Ahmed |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **marry** |  | Ahmed |  |  |  |  | with the fairy | nom marriage «state transitive»: poss=agent with=obl |

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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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