---
title: He went back to the tree and threatened to cut it down for lying to… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: He went back to the tree and threatened to cut it down for lying to him, but the tree said: Who acts: JUAN, tree. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 22, sentence 44

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He went back to the tree and threatened to cut it down for lying to him, but the tree said:

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**Who acts:** JUAN, tree · **What happens:** go back, threaten, cut down, lie, say · **To what, where:** juice, JUAN · **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 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (JUAN, tree), 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:pg65965:22:45
# text = He went back to the tree and threatened to cut it down for lying to him, but the tree said:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	threatened	threaten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go back** | past | JUAN |  |  |  |  | to the tree *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to tree=Result |
| 2 | **threaten** | participle | JUAN *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cut down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | JUAN *not said here* | juice |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 4 | **lie** | gerund | JUAN *not said here* |  | JUAN |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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