---
title: “First you must cross the Black River,” replied the Geni, with a rat… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “First you must cross the Black River,” replied the Geni, with a rather scornful laugh. Who acts: you, Geni. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 25, sentence 108

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“First you must cross the Black River,” replied the Geni, with a rather scornful laugh.

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**Who acts:** you, Geni · **What happens:** cross, reply · **To what, where:** Black River · **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 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Geni), 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:pg65965:25:109
# text = “First you must cross the Black River,” replied the Geni, with a rather scornful laugh.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	River	River	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Geni	Geni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	scornful	scornful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** *in a quote* | must | you | the Black River |  |  |  | first *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the Geni |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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