---
title: The Chinese are slow to change, but even they will turn in time on a… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: The Chinese are slow to change, but even they will turn in time on a constant worrier. Who acts: Chinese, people. 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 96

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The Chinese are slow to change, but even they will turn in time on a constant worrier.

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**Who acts:** Chinese, people · **What happens:** be, change, turn · **To what, where:** constant worrier

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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 (Chinese, people), 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:pg65965:15:98
# text = The Chinese are slow to change, but even they will turn in time on a constant worrier.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	even	even	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	constant	constant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	worrier	worrier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the Chinese |  |  |  |  | slow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **change** | to-infinitive | the Chinese *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **turn** | future | people |  |  | a constant worrier | time |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme on worrier=Trajectory |

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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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