---
title: “Why not, madam?” answered Zeyn; “do you imagine all dreams are wort… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why not, madam?” answered Zeyn; “do you imagine all dreams are worthless? Who acts: madam, Zeyn, dreams. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 106

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“Why not, madam?” answered Zeyn; “do you imagine all dreams are worthless?

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**Who acts:** madam, Zeyn, dreams · **What happens:** answer, imagine, be · **To what, where:** Zeyn · **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 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (madam, Zeyn, dreams), 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:pg65965:16:107
# text = “Why not, madam?” answered Zeyn; “do you imagine all dreams are worthless?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	madam	madam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Zeyn	Zeyn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	dreams	dream	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	worthless	worthless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: ask* | past | madam |  | Zeyn |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent zeyn=Eventuality |
| 2 | **imagine** *in a quote* | present · do-support | Zeyn |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | all dreams |  |  |  |  | worthless *property* | tree rules |

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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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