---
title: “This is happiness,” he said; “who would live on land who could live… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “This is happiness,” he said; “who would live on land who could live in water?” Who acts: demon, land. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 15, sentence 117

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“This is happiness,” he said; “who would live on land who could live in water?”

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**Who acts:** demon, land · **What happens:** be, say, live · **To what, where:** happiness, land, water · **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 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (demon, land), 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:pg65965:15:119
# text = “This is happiness,” he said; “who would live on land who could live in water?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | this happiness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | demon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** *in a quote* | would |  |  |  | land |  | who *nsubj* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on land=Location |
| 4 | **live** *in a quote* | could | land |  |  | water |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in water=Location |

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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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