---
title: I had a mind to try, whether, at his age, he could subdue himself. — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: I had a mind to try, whether, at his age, he could subdue himself. Who acts: I, mind, sultan. 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 63

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I had a mind to try, whether, at his age, he could subdue himself.

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**Who acts:** I, mind, sultan · **What happens:** have, try, subdue · **To what, where:** mind, sultan, age

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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 (I, mind, sultan), 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:pg65965:18:63
# text = I had a mind to try, whether, at his age, he could subdue himself.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
8	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	subdue	subdue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I | a mind |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | to-infinitive | a mind *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **subdue** | could | sultan | sultan |  |  | at sultan's age |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |

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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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