---
title: While he was far away the cloud-cave looked like a dark hole in the… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was far away the cloud-cave looked like a dark hole in the midst of a soft woolly mass, such as one sees in the sky on an April day; but as he came nearer he found the cloud was as hard as a rock, and covered with a kind of dry, white grass. Who acts: dragon, one, cloud. A sentence of «The 
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 23, sentence 25

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While he was far away the cloud-cave looked like a dark hole in the midst of a soft woolly mass, such as one sees in the sky on an April day; but as he came nearer he found the cloud was as hard as a rock, and covered with a kind of dry, white grass.

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**Who acts:** dragon, one, cloud · **What happens:** be, look, see, come, find, cover · **To what, where:** cloud cave, soft woolly mass, sky · **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 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon, one, cloud), 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:pg65965:23:25
# text = While he was far away the cloud-cave looked like a dark hole in the midst of a soft woolly mass, such as one sees in the sky on an April day; but as he came nearer he found the cloud was as hard as a rock, and covered with a kind of dry, white grass.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
10	looked	look	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	woolly	woolly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	mass	mass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=SCONJ	27	mark	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nsubj	_	_
27	sees	see	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	April	April	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
36	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	advcl	_	_
40	nearer	near	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	39	advmod	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
46	as	as	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	ccomp	_	_
48	as	as	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	47	conj	_	_
54	with	with	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obl	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
58	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
60	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | dragon |  |  |  |  | the cloud cave *nsubj*; away, far *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | participle |  | the cloud cave *not said here* |  |  |  | like a dark hole in the midst of a soft woolly mass | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | present | one | a soft woolly mass *not said here* |  | the sky | day |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mass=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come** | past | dragon |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past | dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | past | the cloud |  |  |  |  | as a rock; hard *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **cover** | participle | the cloud *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a kind of dry white grass | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with kind=Theme |

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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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