---
title: “It seems to me,” said he to himself, “that a man ought to live a mu… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “It seems to me,” said he to himself, “that a man ought to live a much longer life than he does. Who acts: It, man. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/41/)

<!-- 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/) / 41

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 8, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It seems to me,” said he to himself, “that a man ought to live a much longer life than he does.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, man · **What happens:** seem, say, live, do · **To what, where:** man, longer life · **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 (It, man), 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:pg65965:8:43
# text = “It seems to me,” said he to himself, “that a man ought to live a much longer life than he does.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
17	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	much	much	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	longer	long	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	amod	_	_
23	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** *in a quote* | present | It |  | man |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | man |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** *in a quote* | ought | a man | a longer life |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme life=Location |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | present | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/42/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/8/)