---
title: At length one of them laughed at the others, and taunted them with b… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: At length one of them laughed at the others, and taunted them with being afraid without any reason, and dared them to at once eat the rice which they all wanted. Who acts: followers. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 8, with its
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 8, sentence 10

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At length one of them laughed at the others, and taunted them with being afraid without any reason, and dared them to at once eat the rice which they all wanted.

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**Who acts:** followers · **What happens:** laugh, taunt, be, dare, eat, want · **To what, where:** length, followers, rice

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (followers), 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:pg65965:8:11
# text = At length one of them laughed at the others, and taunted them with being afraid without any reason, and dared them to at once eat the rice which they all wanted.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	flat	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	taunted	taunt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	cop	_	_
16	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
17	without	without	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	xcomp	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	22	obl	_	_
27	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	rice	rice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	obj	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	advmod	_	_
33	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past |  |  |  | length |  | at the others | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **taunt** | past |  | followers *= follower* |  |  |  |  | vn bully-59.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | without any reason; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **dare** | past |  | followers *= follower* |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **eat** | infinitive |  | the rice |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rice=Patient |
| 6 | **want** | past | followers *= follower* | the rice |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot which=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.

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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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