---
title: As it was, the people on the coast looked out across the water towar… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: As it was, the people on the coast looked out across the water toward Japan, and saw three inky-black clouds stretching from the sky into the sea. Who acts: mischief, people, three inky black clouds. 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 23, sentence 37

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As it was, the people on the coast looked out across the water toward Japan, and saw three inky-black clouds stretching from the sky into the sea.

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**Who acts:** mischief, people, three inky black clouds · **What happens:** be, look out, see, stretch · **To what, where:** water, three inky black clouds, sky

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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 (mischief, people, three inky black clouds), 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:pg65965:23:37
# text = As it was, the people on the coast looked out across the water toward Japan, and saw three inky-black clouds stretching from the sky into the sea.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	across	across	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Japan	Japan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
21	inky	inky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
25	stretching	stretch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	acl	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | mischief |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **look out** | past | the people on the coast |  |  | the water toward Japan |  |  | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | past | the people on the coast *not said here* | three inky black clouds |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cloud=Stimulus |
| 4 | **stretch** | gerund | three inky black clouds *not said here* |  |  | the sky |  | into the sea | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from sky=Location |

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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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