---
title: Once upon a time a Jackal, who was prowling around the suburbs of a… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time a Jackal, who was prowling around the suburbs of a town, fell into an indigo-tank. Who acts: Jackal. 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 69

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Once upon a time a Jackal, who was prowling around the suburbs of a town, fell into an indigo-tank.

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**Who acts:** Jackal · **What happens:** prowl, fall · **To what, where:** suburbs, indigo tank

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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 (Jackal), 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:pg65965:18:70
# text = Once upon a time a Jackal, who was prowling around the suburbs of a town, fell into an indigo-tank.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	18	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Jackal	Jackal	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	prowling	prowl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	acl	_	_
11	around	around	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	suburbs	suburb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
18	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	indigo	indigo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	tank	tank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prowl** | past · progressive | a Jackal |  |  | the suburbs of a town |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme around suburb=Trajectory |
| 2 | **fall** | past | a Jackal |  |  |  |  | into a indigo tank *result*; once *property* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into tank=Result |

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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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