---
title: But King Speckle-neck said they were all to blame, and the thing to… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: But King Speckle-neck said they were all to blame, and the thing to do now was to find some way of escape, and not to waste precious time by quarreling. Who acts: King neck, followers, thing. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 8,
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/13/)

<!-- 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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/) / 13

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 8, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But King Speckle-neck said they were all to blame, and the thing to do now was to find some way of escape, and not to waste precious time by quarreling.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King neck, followers, thing · **What happens:** say, blame, do, be, not waste, quarrel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (King neck, followers, thing), 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:pg65965:8:14
# text = But King Speckle-neck said they were all to blame, and the thing to do now was to find some way of escape, and not to waste precious time by quarreling.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
3	Speckle	Speckle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
9	all	all	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	blame	blame	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl	_	_
18	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	waste	waste	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
31	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
34	quarreling	quarrel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | King neck |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **blame** | past | followers *= follower* |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn judgment-33.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | the thing *not said here* |  |  |  | now |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | the thing |  |  |  |  | some way of escape *obj*; find *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **waste** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **quarrel** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- 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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/14/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/)