---
title: After spending some time in vain efforts to capture the bird, the la… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: After spending some time in vain efforts to capture the bird, the ladies begged the Rajah to leave it with them for a few days, promising to take the greatest care of it. Who acts: ladies, room. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 19, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After spending some time in vain efforts to capture the bird, the ladies begged the Rajah to leave it with them for a few days, promising to take the greatest care of it.

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**Who acts:** ladies, room · **What happens:** spend, capture, beg, leave, promise, take · **To what, where:** vain efforts, bird, Rajah, room, greatest care · **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 (ladies, room), 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:pg65965:19:39
# text = After spending some time in vain efforts to capture the bird, the ladies begged the Rajah to leave it with them for a few days, promising to take the greatest care of it.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	spending	spend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	efforts	effort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	capture	capture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Rajah	Rajah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	promising	promise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	33	amod	_	_
33	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | gerund | the ladies *not said here* |  |  | vain efforts | time |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **capture** | to-infinitive | the ladies *not said here* | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the ladies |  | the Rajah |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent rajah=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **leave** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | room |  |  | day | with ladies *= lady* | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Recipient with they=Theme |
| 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | gerund | the ladies *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the ladies *not said here* | the greatest care of room |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme |
| 7 | **care** |  | room |  |  |  |  |  | nom care «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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