---
title: Gradually this became shorter and shorter, until at last it resumed… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Gradually this became shorter and shorter, until at last it resumed its former shape. Who acts: this, nose. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 7, sentence 20

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Gradually this became shorter and shorter, until at last it resumed its former shape.

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**Who acts:** this, nose · **What happens:** become, resume · **To what, where:** former shape, last

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, nose), 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:pg65965:7:20
# text = Gradually this became shorter and shorter, until at last it resumed its former shape.
1	Gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
3	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	resumed	resume	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | this |  |  |  |  | gradually, short *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **resume** | past | nose | nose's former shape |  | last |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shape=Eventuality |

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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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