---
title: Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time pro… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time pronounce the word ‘Mutabor!’ can transform himself into any creature he likes, and will understand the language of all animals. Who acts: Whoever, word, Selim. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/9/81/)

<!-- 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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/9/) / 81

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 9, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time pronounce the word ‘Mutabor!’ can transform himself into any creature he likes, and will understand the language of all animals.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Whoever, word, Selim · **What happens:** snuff, pronounce, transform, like, understand · **To what, where:** powder, box, Selim, creature, language

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Whoever, word, Selim), 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:pg65965:9:83
# text = Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time pronounce the word ‘Mutabor!’ can transform himself into any creature he likes, and will understand the language of all animals.
1	Whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	snuff	snuff	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	powder	powder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
15	pronounce	pronounce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Mutabor	Mutabor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	transform	transform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
24	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
27	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	likes	like	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	38	det	_	_
38	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **snuff** | shall | Whoever | the powder |  | this box |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pronounce** | infinitive | Whoever *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **transform** | can | the word | Selim |  |  |  | into any creature *result* | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Patient into creature=Result |
| 4 | **like** | present | Selim | any creature *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot creature=Theme |
| 5 | **understand** | future |  | the language of all animals |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/9/80/)
- next →: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/9/82/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/9/)