---
title: Balna’s son was a very clever boy, and he said: “Dear mother, have n… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Balna’s son was a very clever boy, and he said: “Dear mother, have no fear; the first thing to do is to find out how far the Magician’s power extends, in order that we may be able to free my father and uncles. Who acts: son, first thing, power, we. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from th
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/4/32/)

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 4, sentence 32

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Balna’s son was a very clever boy, and he said: “Dear mother, have no fear; the first thing to do is to find out how far the Magician’s power extends, in order that we may be able to free my father and uncles.

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**Who acts:** son, first thing, power, we, father · **What happens:** be, say, have, do, extend · **To what, where:** clever boy, fear, order · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, first thing, power, we), 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:pg65965:4:32
# text = Balna’s son was a very clever boy, and he said: “Dear mother, have no fear; the first thing to do is to find out how far the Magician’s power extends, in order that we may be able to free my father and uncles.
1	Balna	Balna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’s	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	24	amod	_	_
24	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
32	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	37	advmod	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	Magician	Magician	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’s	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	_
36	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	extends	extend	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
41	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
42	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
43	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	cop	_	_
45	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	acl	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	conj	_	_
48	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	uncles	uncle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Balna's son | a clever boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | son | a clever boy *not said here* |  |  |  | Dear mother *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent boy=Topic |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | son *not said here* | no fear |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fear=Patient |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the first thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the first thing |  |  |  |  | find *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **extend** *in a quote* | present | the Magician's power |  |  | order |  | far *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in order=Location |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | may | we | order *not said here* |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **be** *in a quote* |  | my father and uncles |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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