---
title: We cannot successfully oppose them, but in the defense of the father… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: We cannot successfully oppose them, but in the defense of the fatherland we can die.” Who acts: We. 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 3

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We cannot successfully oppose them, but in the defense of the fatherland we can die.”

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**Who acts:** We · **What happens:** not oppose, die · **To what, where:** dogs

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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 (We), 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:pg65965:25:3
# text = We cannot successfully oppose them, but in the defense of the fatherland we can die.”
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	successfully	successfully	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	oppose	oppose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	defense	defense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	fatherland	fatherland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **oppose** | can | We | dogs *= dog* |  |  |  | successfully *property* | vn amalgamate-22.2-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 2 | **die** | can | we |  |  |  |  | in the defense of the fatherland | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in defense=Attribute |

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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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