---
title: But there was no one to wind it up, and he was too weak to do this h… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: But there was no one to wind it up, and he was too weak to do this himself. Who acts: one, wind, Emperor. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 2, sentence 14

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But there was no one to wind it up, and he was too weak to do this himself.

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**Who acts:** one, wind, Emperor · **What happens:** be, wind, do · **To what, where:** this

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, wind, Emperor), 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:pg65965:2:14
# text = But there was no one to wind it up, and he was too weak to do this himself.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	too	too	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
18	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	obj	_	_
19	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no one and wind |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **wind** |  | wind |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | Emperor |  |  |  |  | weak *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | Emperor *not said here* | this |  |  |  | Emperor *obl:unmarked* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |

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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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