---
title: He had not been there long before a group of children came to the fi… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: He had not been there long before a group of children came to the field and began to play and enjoy themselves. Who acts: Chô. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/7/5/)

<!-- 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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/7/) / 5

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 7, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had not been there long before a group of children came to the field and began to play and enjoy themselves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Chô · **What happens:** have, not be, come, begin, play, enjoy · **To what, where:** field, children

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Chô), 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:pg65965:7:5
# text = He had not been there long before a group of children came to the field and began to play and enjoy themselves.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
6	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	group	group	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	enjoy	enjoy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Chô |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past |  |  |  | the field | before a group of children |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to field=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **play** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **enjoy** | infinitive |  | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer themselves=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/7/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/7/6/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/7/)