---
title: “As soon as they look up I can ask them if I may chop down a tree,”… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “As soon as they look up I can ask them if I may chop down a tree,” he said to himself. Who acts: eyes, Wang. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/22/87/)

<!-- 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 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/22/) / 87

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 22, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“As soon as they look up I can ask them if I may chop down a tree,” he said to himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eyes, Wang · **What happens:** look up, ask, chop down, say · **To what, where:** eyes, tree, Wang · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (eyes, Wang), 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:pg65965:22:89
# text = “As soon as they look up I can ask them if I may chop down a tree,” he said to himself.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	As	as	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	look	look	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	chop	chop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
16	down	down	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look up** *in a quote* | present | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | can | Wang |  | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 3 | **chop down** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | may | Wang | a tree |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Wang |  | Wang |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |

<!-- .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 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/22/86/)
- next →: [sentence 88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/22/88/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/22/)