---
title: A fowler, seeking to snare some birds, set a trap with which he migh… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: A fowler, seeking to snare some birds, set a trap with which he might catch them. Who acts: fowler. 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 4

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A fowler, seeking to snare some birds, set a trap with which he might catch them.

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**Who acts:** fowler · **What happens:** seek, snare, set, catch · **To what, where:** birds, trap

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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 (fowler), 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:pg65965:8:5
# text = A fowler, seeking to snare some birds, set a trap with which he might catch them.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fowler	fowler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	snare	snare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	trap	trap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl:relcl	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | gerund | a fowler *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **snare** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a fowler *not said here* | some birds |  |  |  |  | vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 3 | **set** | infinitive | a fowler | a trap |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient trap=Result |
| 4 | **catch** | might | fowler | birds *= bird* |  |  |  | with a trap | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

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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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