---
title: He lifted his spear and took aim, but before he could throw the pig… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: He lifted his spear and took aim, but before he could throw the pig started to run, and instead of going toward a water course it ran straight up the mountain. Who acts: distance, pig. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 15, with 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/15/37/)

<!-- 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 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/15/) / 37

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 15, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He lifted his spear and took aim, but before he could throw the pig started to run, and instead of going toward a water course it ran straight up the mountain.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** distance, pig · **What happens:** lift, take, throw, start, run, go · **To what, where:** spear, aim, water course, mountain

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (distance, pig), 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:pg65965:15:38
# text = He lifted his spear and took aim, but before he could throw the pig started to run, and instead of going toward a water course it ran straight up the mountain.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	23	mark	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
24	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
30	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	up	up	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lift** | past | distance | distance's spear |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spear=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | distance *not said here* | aim |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent aim=Theme |
| 3 | **throw** | could | distance |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **start** | past | the pig |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **run** | to-infinitive | the pig *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **go** | gerund | distance *not said here* |  |  | a water course |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme toward course=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **run** | past | pig |  |  | the mountain |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme up mountain=Trajectory |

<!-- .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: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/15/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/15/38/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/15/)