---
title: I would rather search in vain than blame myself as long as I live fo… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: I would rather search in vain than blame myself as long as I live for having, perhaps, missed great riches, by being too unbelieving.” Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 17, sentence 3

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I would rather search in vain than blame myself as long as I live for having, perhaps, missed great riches, by being too unbelieving.”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** search, live, have, miss, unbeliev · **To what, where:** myself, vain, great riches

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg65965:17:3
# text = I would rather search in vain than blame myself as long as I live for having, perhaps, missed great riches, by being too unbelieving.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	search	search	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obl	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	blame	blame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	as	as	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
21	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	nsubj	_	_
26	too	too	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	unbelieving	unbeliev	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **search** | would | I | myself |  | vain than blame |  | long *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in vain=Location |
| 2 | **live** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **miss** | past |  | great riches |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rich=Stimulus |
| 5 | **unbeliev** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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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