---
title: Once he came to a wooden fence which surrounded a stone in the form… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Once he came to a wooden fence which surrounded a stone in the form of a man, and as it was directly in his path he drew his fighting knife to cut down the fence. Who acts: father, stone. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 24, wi
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 24, sentence 44

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Once he came to a wooden fence which surrounded a stone in the form of a man, and as it was directly in his path he drew his fighting knife to cut down the fence.

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**Who acts:** father, stone · **What happens:** come, surround, be, draw, cut down, form · **To what, where:** wooden fence, path, fighting knife, fence, man

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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 (father, stone), 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:pg65965:24:46
# text = Once he came to a wooden fence which surrounded a stone in the form of a man, and as it was directly in his path he drew his fighting knife to cut down the fence.
1	Once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	advcl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	fighting	fighting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
34	down	down	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | father |  |  | a wooden fence |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to fence=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **surround** | participle · passive |  | a wooden fence |  |  |  | a stone *obj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | stone |  |  | father's path |  | father *nmod:poss*; directly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **draw** | past | father | father's fighting knife |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 5 | **cut down** | to-infinitive | father *not said here* | the fence |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset fence=Product |
| 6 | **form** |  |  | a man |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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