---
title: Seeing that he was poor, with clothes threadbare and torn, she despi… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Seeing that he was poor, with clothes threadbare and torn, she despised him, and said, “What poor wretch is this with whom I have to contend?” Who acts: man, Abibas, poor wretch. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 7, with its dep
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 7, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Seeing that he was poor, with clothes threadbare and torn, she despised him, and said, “What poor wretch is this with whom I have to contend?”

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**Who acts:** man, Abibas, poor wretch · **What happens:** see, be, tear, despise, say, have · **To what, where:** man · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, Abibas, poor wretch), 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:pg65965:7:36
# text = Seeing that he was poor, with clothes threadbare and torn, she despised him, and said, “What poor wretch is this with whom I have to contend?”
1	Seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	csubj	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	9	obl	_	_
9	threadbare	threadbare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	despised	despise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	wretch	wretch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nsubj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	parataxis	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	contend	contend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tear** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **despise** | past | Abibas | man |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 5 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Abibas *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | poor wretch |  |  |  |  | this *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 7 | **have** *in a quote* | present | Abibas |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **contend** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Abibas *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=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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