---
title: While at luncheon his attention was attracted to a bird of brilliant… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: While at luncheon his attention was attracted to a bird of brilliant red plumage which was perched on the branch of a tree. Who acts: Varna. 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 ev
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 19, sentence 23

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While at luncheon his attention was attracted to a bird of brilliant red plumage which was perched on the branch of a tree.

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**Who acts:** Varna · **What happens:** attract, perch, attend · **To what, where:** luncheon, brilliant red plumage, branch

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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 (Varna), 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:pg65965:19:23
# text = While at luncheon his attention was attracted to a bird of brilliant red plumage which was perched on the branch of a tree.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	luncheon	luncheon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	attention	attention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	attracted	attract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	brilliant	brilliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **attract** | past · passive |  | luncheon  Varna's attention |  |  |  | to a bird of brilliant red plumage *result* | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient to bird=Result |
| 2 | **perch** | past · passive |  | brilliant red plumage |  | the branch of a tree |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on branch=Destination |
| 3 | **attend** |  | Varna |  |  |  |  |  | nom attention «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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