---
title: The stepmother was astonished that the seven girls should eat nothin… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: The stepmother was astonished that the seven girls should eat nothing and yet be well, so she told her daughter to watch them. Who acts: stepmother, seven girls. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 3, sentence 52

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The stepmother was astonished that the seven girls should eat nothing and yet be well, so she told her daughter to watch them.

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**Who acts:** stepmother, seven girls · **What happens:** be, eat, tell, watch · **To what, where:** nothing, daughter, daughters · **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 (stepmother, seven girls), 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:pg65965:3:53
# text = The stepmother was astonished that the seven girls should eat nothing and yet be well, so she told her daughter to watch them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	astonished	astonished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	iobj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the stepmother |  |  |  |  | astonished *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | should | the seven girls | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | infinitive | the seven girls *not said here* |  |  |  | yet | well *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | stepmother |  | stepmother's daughter |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent daughter=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **watch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | stepmother *not said here* | daughters *= daughter* |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

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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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