---
title: Looking up, they saw a large bird, which said to them: “You seek you… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Looking up, they saw a large bird, which said to them: “You seek your prince in vain. Who acts: tutor, large bird, You. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 19, sentence 15

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Looking up, they saw a large bird, which said to them: “You seek your prince in vain.

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**Who acts:** tutor, large bird, You · **What happens:** look up, see, say, seek · **To what, where:** large bird, tutor, prince, vain · **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 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tutor, large bird, You), 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:pg65965:19:15
# text = Looking up, they saw a large bird, which said to them: “You seek your prince in vain.
1	Looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
2	up	up	ADP	RP	_	1	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	seek	seek	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look up** | gerund | tutor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | tutor | a large bird |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a large bird |  | tutor |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 4 | **seek** *in a quote* | present | You | your prince |  | vain |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent prince=Theme in vain=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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