---
title: Then she told him that if he would save her life, he must kill his s… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she told him that if he would save her life, he must kill his seven daughters, and put some of their blood on her forehead and on the palms of her hands; that their death would be her life. Who acts: stepmother, thing, death, lives. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» b
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 3, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then she told him that if he would save her life, he must kill his seven daughters, and put some of their blood on her forehead and on the palms of her hands; that their death would be her life.

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**Who acts:** stepmother, thing, death, lives · **What happens:** tell, save, kill, put, be, die · **To what, where:** thing, life, seven daughters, some, forehead · **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, thing, death, lives), 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:pg65965:3:81
# text = Then she told him that if he would save her life, he must kill his seven daughters, and put some of their blood on her forehead and on the palms of her hands; that their death would be her life.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	palms	palm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
37	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
38	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
40	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
41	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	cop	_	_
42	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | stepmother |  | thing |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **save** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | thing | stepmother's life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 3 | **kill** | must | thing | thing's seven daughters |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive | thing *not said here* | some of lives's blood |  | stepmother's forehead and the palms of stepmother's hands |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent some=Theme on forehead=Destination |
| 5 | **is a** | would | lives's death | stepmother's life |  |  |  | stepmother *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 6 | **die** |  | lives *= life* |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: poss=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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