---
title: But as he spoke, the axe crumbled to dust beneath his fingers, and t… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: But as he spoke, the axe crumbled to dust beneath his fingers, and the second chess-player laughed, and pointed to the little brown sweetmeats on the table. Who acts: Wang, axe, second chess player. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, 
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 22, sentence 99

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as he spoke, the axe crumbled to dust beneath his fingers, and the second chess-player laughed, and pointed to the little brown sweetmeats on the table.

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**Who acts:** Wang, axe, second chess player · **What happens:** speak, crumble, dust, laugh, point · **To what, where:** fingers, little brown sweetmeats · **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 (Wang, axe, second chess player), 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:pg65965:22:101
# text = But as he spoke, the axe crumbled to dust beneath his fingers, and the second chess-player laughed, and pointed to the little brown sweetmeats on the table.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	crumbled	crumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	dust	dust	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
17	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	20	amod	_	_
18	chess	chess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	player	player	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	sweetmeats	sweetmeat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Wang |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **crumble** | past | the axe |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dust** | to-infinitive | the axe *not said here* |  |  | Wang's fingers |  |  | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent beneath finger=Destination |
| 4 | **laugh** | past | the second chess player |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **point** | participle | the axe *not said here* |  | the little brown sweetmeats on the table |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to sweetmeat=Recipient |

<!-- .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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