---
title: This was very hard for the seven poor Princesses, who had always bee… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: This was very hard for the seven poor Princesses, who had always been used to the best of everything, and each day they would sit by their dead mother’s tomb, and say: Who acts: This, Princesses. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, par
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 3, sentence 48

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This was very hard for the seven poor Princesses, who had always been used to the best of everything, and each day they would sit by their dead mother’s tomb, and say:

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**Who acts:** This, Princesses · **What happens:** be, use, sit, say · **To what, where:** seven poor Princesses · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, Princesses), 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:pg65965:3:49
# text = This was very hard for the seven poor Princesses, who had always been used to the best of everything, and each day they would sit by their dead mother’s tomb, and say:
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	Princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	15	advmod	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	tomb	tomb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | This |  |  |  |  | for the seven poor Princesses; hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | past · perfect · passive |  | the seven poor Princesses |  |  |  | always *property* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **sit** | would | Princesses *= princess* |  |  |  | day | by Princesses's dead mother's tomb | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by tomb=Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | Princesses *= princess* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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