---
title: The pedler opened the drawer and showed them a box containing a blac… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: The pedler opened the drawer and showed them a box containing a black powder, and a scroll written in strange characters, which neither the Caliph nor Mansor could read. Who acts: pedler, box, Caliph. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 9, sentence 66

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The pedler opened the drawer and showed them a box containing a black powder, and a scroll written in strange characters, which neither the Caliph nor Mansor could read.

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**Who acts:** pedler, box, Caliph · **What happens:** open, show, contain, write, read · **To what, where:** drawer, Caliph, black powder, scroll, strange characters

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pedler, box, Caliph), 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:pg65965:9:68
# text = The pedler opened the drawer and showed them a box containing a black powder, and a scroll written in strange characters, which neither the Caliph nor Mansor could read.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pedler	pedler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	drawer	drawer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	containing	contain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	powder	powder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	scroll	scroll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obj	_	_
25	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	27	cc:preconj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
28	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	29	cc	_	_
29	Mansor	Mansor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the pedler | the drawer |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drawer=Theme |
| 2 | **show** | past | the pedler *not said here* | Caliph |  |  |  | a box *obj* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient box=Topic |
| 3 | **contain** | gerund | a box *not said here* | a black powder |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot powder=Theme |
| 4 | **write** | participle · passive |  | a scroll |  | strange characters |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in character=Destination |
| 5 | **read** | could | the Caliph nor Mansor | strange characters |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Topic |

<!-- .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.

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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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