---
title: But they, having no idea of obeying what they considered to be an im… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: But they, having no idea of obeying what they considered to be an impossible order, merely used this as an excuse for taking a pleasant holiday. Who acts: knights, idea, impossible order, excuse. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, par
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/5/48/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jade Story Book; Stories from the…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/) / [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/5/) / 48

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 5, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But they, having no idea of obeying what they considered to be an impossible order, merely used this as an excuse for taking a pleasant holiday.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** knights, idea, impossible order, excuse · **What happens:** have, obey, consider, be, use, take · **To what, where:** idea, impossible order, this, pleasant holiday

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knights, idea, impossible order, excuse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:5:48
# text = But they, having no idea of obeying what they considered to be an impossible order, merely used this as an excuse for taking a pleasant holiday.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	obeying	obey	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	considered	consider	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
20	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	obj	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	excuse	excuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	holiday	holiday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | gerund | knights *= knight* | no idea |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Patient |
| 2 | **obey** | gerund | no idea *not said here* | no idea |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 3 | **consider** | past | knights *= knight* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive | knights *= knight* *not said here* | a impossible order |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **use** | participle | a impossible order *not said here* | this |  |  |  | as a excuse; merely *property* | vn spend\_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent this=Duration as excuse=Attribute |
| 6 | **take** | gerund | a excuse *not said here* | a pleasant holiday |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent holiday=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/5/47/)
- next →: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/5/49/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/5/)