---
title: Whilst they were talking, he spied a boat made of red sandalwood on… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Whilst they were talking, he spied a boat made of red sandalwood on the lake. Who acts: dangers, prince. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 17, sentence 94

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Whilst they were talking, he spied a boat made of red sandalwood on the lake.

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**Who acts:** dangers, prince · **What happens:** talk, spy, make · **To what, where:** boat

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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 (dangers, prince), 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:pg65965:17:94
# text = Whilst they were talking, he spied a boat made of red sandalwood on the lake.
1	Whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	sandalwood	sandalwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | dangers *= danger* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **spy** | past | prince | a boat |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer boat=Stimulus |
| 3 | **make** | participle |  | a boat *not said here* |  |  |  | of red sandalwood on the lake | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

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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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