---
title: They dared not stop him, knowing that he had the power to turn the f… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: They dared not stop him, knowing that he had the power to turn the four brooks into rivers again. Who acts: pestle, Pei, power. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 26, sentence 36

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They dared not stop him, knowing that he had the power to turn the four brooks into rivers again.

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**Who acts:** pestle, Pei, power · **What happens:** stop, know, have, turn · **To what, where:** Pei, power, four brooks, rivers · **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 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pestle, Pei, power), 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:pg65965:26:36
# text = They dared not stop him, knowing that he had the power to turn the four brooks into rivers again.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	brooks	brook	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | pestle | Pei |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality he=Eventuality |
| 2 | **know** | gerund | pestle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | past | Pei | the power |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **turn** | to-infinitive | the power *not said here* | the four brooks |  | rivers | again |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent brook=Theme into river=Trajectory |

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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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