---
title: “Well,” he said, “here is a tortoise, and that is better than nothin… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well,” he said, “here is a tortoise, and that is better than nothing, and it will make a very good meal.” Who acts: hunter, that, tortoise. 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 ev
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 22, sentence 8

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“Well,” he said, “here is a tortoise, and that is better than nothing, and it will make a very good meal.”

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**Who acts:** hunter, that, tortoise · **What happens:** say, be, make · **To what, where:** tortoise, good meal · **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 (hunter, that, tortoise), 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:pg65965:22:8
# text = “Well,” he said, “here is a tortoise, and that is better than nothing, and it will make a very good meal.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	conj	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | hunter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | a tortoise |  | here |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | that |  |  |  |  | than nothing; good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | future | tortoise | a good meal |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material meal=Product |

<!-- .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.

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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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