---
title: Since then, too, cats have been afraid of water and will not swim ac… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Since then, too, cats have been afraid of water and will not swim across a river if they can avoid it. Who acts: cats, TAILS. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 18, sentence 115

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Since then, too, cats have been afraid of water and will not swim across a river if they can avoid it.

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**Who acts:** cats, TAILS · **What happens:** be, not swim, avoid · **To what, where:** river

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cats, TAILS), 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:pg65965:18:117
# text = Since then, too, cats have been afraid of water and will not swim across a river if they can avoid it.
1	Since	since	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
9	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
16	across	across	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present · perfect | cats |  |  |  |  | of water; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **swim** | future | cats *not said here* |  |  | a river |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across river=Trajectory |
| 3 | **avoid** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | TAILS *= tail* | river |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent it=Location |

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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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