---
title: Upon every bough of the tree in front of him were perched many birds… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Upon every bough of the tree in front of him were perched many birds, and in the center of them sat the poor fisherman, who held to his lips a reed instrument. Who acts: poor fisherman. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 2, with 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/2/27/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jade Story Book; Stories from the…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/2/) / 27

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 2, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Upon every bough of the tree in front of him were perched many birds, and in the center of them sat the poor fisherman, who held to his lips a reed instrument.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor fisherman · **What happens:** perch, sit, hold · **To what, where:** many birds, bough, poor fisherman, center

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (poor fisherman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:2:27
# text = Upon every bough of the tree in front of him were perched many birds, and in the center of them sat the poor fisherman, who held to his lips a reed instrument.
1	Upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	bough	bough	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
13	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	center	center	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	_
22	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	reed	reed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	instrument	instrument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perch** | past · passive |  | many birds |  | every bough of the tree in front of Emperor |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: bird=Theme upon bough=Destination |
| 2 | **sit** | past |  | the poor fisherman |  | the center of bough |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent fisherman=Theme in center=Location |
| 3 | **hold** | past | the poor fisherman |  |  |  |  | to Emperor's lips  a reed instrument | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/2/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/2/28/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/2/)