---
title: Every day before breakfast he cuts off the heads of two or three men… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Every day before breakfast he cuts off the heads of two or three men just to amuse himself. Who acts: day. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 20, sentence 98

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Every day before breakfast he cuts off the heads of two or three men just to amuse himself.

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**Who acts:** day · **What happens:** cut off, amuse · **To what, where:** heads, Rasalu

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (day), 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:pg65965:20:99
# text = Every day before breakfast he cuts off the heads of two or three men just to amuse himself.
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	cuts	cut	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	conj	_	_
14	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
15	just	just	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut off** | present | every day before breakfast | the heads of two men |  |  |  | Rasalu *nsubj* | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
| 2 | **amuse** | to-infinitive | every day before breakfast *not said here* | Rasalu |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=Experiencer |

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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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