Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Opening, sentence 12

A few words about her work in the past explained the sadness of the brown eyes which had already seen many life tragedies in her five years of city mission work, but their merry sparkle when she entered into the happy flow of talk about her showed that her sympathies were as full and rich for joy as for sorrow.

Who acts: few words, merry sparkle, sympathies, woman, talk · What happens: explain, see, enter, show, be, work · To what, where: sadness, brown eyes, happy flow, past · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few words, merry sparkle, sympathies, woman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 words	det
2	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 words	amod
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 explained	nsubj
4	about	about	ADP	_	6 work	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 work	nmod:poss
6	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 words	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 past	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 past	det
9	past	past	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 work	nmod
10	explained	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 sadness	det
12	sadness	sadness	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 explained	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 eyes	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 eyes	det
15	brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 eyes	amod
16	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 sadness	nmod
17	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 seen	nsubj:pass
18	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 seen	aux
19	already	already	ADV	_	20 seen	advmod
20	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 eyes	acl:relcl
21	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 tragedies	amod
22	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 tragedies	compound
23	tragedies	tragedy	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 seen	obj
24	in	in	ADP	_	27 years	case
25	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 years	nmod:poss
26	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	27 years	nummod
27	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 tragedies	nmod
28	of	of	ADP	_	31 work	case
29	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 work	compound
30	mission	mission	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 work	compound
31	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 years	nmod
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 entered	punct
33	but	but	CCONJ	_	39 entered	cc
34	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	36 sparkle	nmod:poss
35	merry	merry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 sparkle	amod
36	sparkle	sparkle	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 entered	nsubj
37	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	39 entered	advmod
38	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 entered	nsubj
39	entered	enter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 explained	conj
40	into	into	ADP	_	43 flow	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 flow	det
42	happy	happy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	43 flow	amod
43	flow	flow	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 entered	obl
44	of	of	ADP	_	45 talk	case
45	talk	talk	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 flow	nmod
46	about	about	SCONJ	_	48 showed	mark
47	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	48 showed	nmod:poss
48	showed	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	39 entered	advcl
49	that	that	SCONJ	_	54 full	mark
50	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	51 sympathies	nmod:poss
51	sympathies	sympathy	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 full	nsubj
52	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	54 full	cop
53	as	as	ADP	_	54 full	case
54	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	48 showed	ccomp
55	and	and	CCONJ	_	56 rich	cc
56	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	54 full	conj
57	for	for	ADP	_	58 joy	case
58	joy	joy	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 full	obl
59	as	as	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	61 sorrow	case
60	for	for	ADP	_	59 as	fixed
61	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	58 joy	nmod
62	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 explained	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	past	a few words about woman's work in the past	the sadness of the brown eyes			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sadness=Topic
2	see	past · perfect · passive		the brown eyes		many life tragedies obj	tree rules
3	enter	past	words's merry sparkle		the happy flow of talk	sparkle nsubj	vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into flow=Initial_Location
4	show	past	words's merry sparkle not said here			woman nmod:poss	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	is	past	woman's sympathies			for joy as sorrow; full property	tree rules
6	be		woman's sympathies not said here				tree rules
7	work		woman		the past		nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent in=place
8	flow		talk				nom flow «event intransitive»: of=agent

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.

Text: «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Project Gutenberg book 75089 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/1/12/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Opening, sentence 12

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Opening, sentence 12