---
title: Opulo bowed his head to the ground, and Jofuku said to him, “Your re… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Opulo bowed his head to the ground, and Jofuku said to him, “Your request is selfish and therefore hard to grant. Who acts: Opulo, Jofuku, request, Your. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 8, sentence 55

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Opulo bowed his head to the ground, and Jofuku said to him, “Your request is selfish and therefore hard to grant.

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**Who acts:** Opulo, Jofuku, request, Your · **What happens:** bow, say, be, grant, request · **To what, where:** head, ground, story, selfish · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Opulo, Jofuku, request, Your), 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:pg65965:8:57
# text = Opulo bowed his head to the ground, and Jofuku said to him, “Your request is selfish and therefore hard to grant.
1	Opulo	Opulo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	Jofuku	Jofuku	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	request	request	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	selfish	selfish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	grant	grant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | past | Opulo | story's head | the ground |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent head=Topic to ground=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jofuku |  | story |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Your request | selfish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* |  | Your request *not said here* |  |  |  |  | therefore *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **grant** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Your request *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **request** *in a quote* |  | Your |  |  |  |  |  | nom request «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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