---
title: Now a widower was sharpening his axe on the bank of the river, and w… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Now a widower was sharpening his axe on the bank of the river, and when he saw the coffin stop, he went to fish it out of the water. Who acts: widower. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/24/1/)

<!-- 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 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/24/) / 1

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 24, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now a widower was sharpening his axe on the bank of the river, and when he saw the coffin stop, he went to fish it out of the water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** widower · **What happens:** sharpen, see, go, fish · **To what, where:** axe, bank, coffin stop, stop, water

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (widower), 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:pg65965:24:1
# text = Now a widower was sharpening his axe on the bank of the river, and when he saw the coffin stop, he went to fish it out of the water.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	widower	widower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sharpening	sharpen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	stop	stop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	fish	fish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sharpen** | past · progressive | a widower | widower's axe |  | the bank of the river | now |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent axe=Patient |
| 2 | **see** | past | widower | the coffin stop |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer stop=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | past | widower |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fish** | infinitive | widower *not said here* | stop |  | the water |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme out water=Location |

<!-- .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: [Opening, part 23, 143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/23/143/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/24/2/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/24/)