---
title: The tortoise at once came to the surface, and seeing the goat standi… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: The tortoise at once came to the surface, and seeing the goat standing there, evidently thirsty, but trembling and afraid to drink, spoke kindly to him, assuring him that there was no danger. Who acts: tortoise, goat, danger. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/21/106/)

<!-- 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 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/21/) / 106

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 21, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The tortoise at once came to the surface, and seeing the goat standing there, evidently thirsty, but trembling and afraid to drink, spoke kindly to him, assuring him that there was no danger.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tortoise, goat, danger · **What happens:** come, see, stand, tremble, drink, speak · **To what, where:** surface, goat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tortoise, goat, danger), 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:pg65965:21:107
# text = The tortoise at once came to the surface, and seeing the goat standing there, evidently thirsty, but trembling and afraid to drink, spoke kindly to him, assuring him that there was no danger.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	obl	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	csubj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	_
15	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	evidently	evidently	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	thirsty	thirsty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
27	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
28	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	assuring	assure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
35	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	36	expl	_	_
36	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	_
37	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	38	det	_	_
38	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the tortoise |  |  | the surface |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to surface=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **see** | gerund |  | the goat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stand** | gerund | the goat *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tremble** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **drink** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | past |  |  | goat |  |  | kindly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-Agent |
| 7 | **assure** | gerund |  |  | goat |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 8 | **be** | past | no danger |  |  | there |  |  | 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 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/21/105/)
- next →: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/21/107/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/21/)