---
title: But the Rájá answered sternly, “A wise man will finish the enterpris… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Rájá answered sternly, “A wise man will finish the enterprise upon which he starts, and only a fool will confess to failure.” Who acts: Rájá, wise man, man, fool. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 27, with its dependency
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 27, sentence 17

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But the Rájá answered sternly, “A wise man will finish the enterprise upon which he starts, and only a fool will confess to failure.”

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**Who acts:** Rájá, wise man, man, fool · **What happens:** answer, finish, start, confess · **To what, where:** enterprise, failure · **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 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rájá, wise man, man, fool), 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:pg65965:27:18
# text = But the Rájá answered sternly, “A wise man will finish the enterprise upon which he starts, and only a fool will confess to failure.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Rájá	Rájá	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	sternly	sternly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	finish	finish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	enterprise	enterprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	starts	start	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	confess	confess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	failure	failure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Rájá |  |  |  |  | sternly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **finish** *in a quote* | future | a wise man | the enterprise |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector enterprise=Eventuality |
| 3 | **start** *in a quote* | present | man |  |  |  |  | upon the enterprise | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **confess** *in a quote* | future | a fool |  | failure |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to failure=Recipient |

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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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