---
title: “Now,” he said to himself, “I am certainly much prettier than I was… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “Now,” he said to himself, “I am certainly much prettier than I was before; why should not this accident prove to be a good thing for me. Who acts: JACKAL, accident. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 18, sentence 73

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“Now,” he said to himself, “I am certainly much prettier than I was before; why should not this accident prove to be a good thing for me.

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**Who acts:** JACKAL, accident · **What happens:** say, be, not prove · **To what, where:** JACKAL, good thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, accident), 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:pg65965:18:74
# text = “Now,” he said to himself, “I am certainly much prettier than I was before; why should not this accident prove to be a good thing for me.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	much	much	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	prettier	pretty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	parataxis	_	_
16	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	before	before	ADV	RB	_	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
24	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | JACKAL |  | JACKAL |  | now |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | JACKAL |  |  |  |  | pretty *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | JACKAL |  |  |  |  | before *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **prove** *in a quote* | should | this accident |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | this accident *not said here* | a good thing |  |  |  | for JACKAL | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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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