---
title: A rich man in a certain town once owned a dog and a cat, both of whi… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: A rich man in a certain town once owned a dog and a cat, both of which were very useful to him. Who acts: rich man, both. 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 91

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A rich man in a certain town once owned a dog and a cat, both of which were very useful to him.

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**Who acts:** rich man, both · **What happens:** own, be · **To what, where:** dog

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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 (rich man, both), 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:pg65965:18:93
# text = A rich man in a certain town once owned a dog and a cat, both of which were very useful to him.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
9	owned	own	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nmod	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	useful	useful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	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 | **own** | past | a rich man in a certain town | a dog and a cat |  |  |  | once *property* | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot dog=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | both |  | dog |  |  | useful *property* | tree rules |

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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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