---
title: Strange to say, after having lived there for two hundred years life… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Strange to say, after having lived there for two hundred years life began to be somewhat dull and monotonous. Who acts: life. 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 88

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Strange to say, after having lived there for two hundred years life began to be somewhat dull and monotonous.

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**Who acts:** life · **What happens:** say, live, begin, be · **To what, where:** hundred years · **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 (life), 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:pg65965:8:90
# text = Strange to say, after having lived there for two hundred years life began to be somewhat dull and monotonous.
1	Strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
2	to	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	aux	_	_
7	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	compound	_	_
11	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
13	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
17	somewhat	somewhat	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	monotonous	monotonous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **live** | gerund · perfect |  |  |  | there | year |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past | life | hundred years *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent year=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | life *not said here* |  |  |  |  | dull, somewhat *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | life *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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