---
title: Then right in front of him he saw a huge fish, its mouth wide open,… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Then right in front of him he saw a huge fish, its mouth wide open, ready to devour him. Who acts: life, huge fish. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 8, sentence 108

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Then right in front of him he saw a huge fish, its mouth wide open, ready to devour him.

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**Who acts:** life, huge fish · **What happens:** see, devour · **To what, where:** huge fish, right front, life

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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 (life, huge fish), 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:pg65965:8:110
# text = Then right in front of him he saw a huge fish, its mouth wide open, ready to devour him.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
15	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	devour	devour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | life | a huge fish and front's mouth |  | right front of life |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer fish=Stimulus |
| 2 | **devour** | to-infinitive | a huge fish and front's mouth *not said here* | life |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

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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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