---
title: To his surprise, two old men, with long, white beards, were sitting… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: To his surprise, two old men, with long, white beards, were sitting inside playing chess, as quietly as mice, with their eyes fixed on the chessboard. Who acts: two old men, Wang. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 22, with its d
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 22, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To his surprise, two old men, with long, white beards, were sitting inside playing chess, as quietly as mice, with their eyes fixed on the chessboard.

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**Who acts:** two old men, Wang · **What happens:** sit, play, fix, surprise · **To what, where:** chess, eyes, chessboard

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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 (two old men, Wang), 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:pg65965:22:87
# text = To his surprise, two old men, with long, white beards, were sitting inside playing chess, as quietly as mice, with their eyes fixed on the chessboard.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	beards	beard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
17	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
19	chess	chess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	parataxis	_	_
29	fixed	fix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	chessboard	chessboard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | two old men and long white beards |  |  |  |  | to Wang's surprise; mice's eyes *parataxis*; quietly *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **play** | gerund | two old men and long white beards *not said here* | chess |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chess=Theme |
| 3 | **fix** | participle |  | mice's eyes *not said here* |  | the chessboard |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **surprise** |  | Wang |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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