Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 11
When Teacher Chi appeared Nien Chi with profound bows and his most pleasing manner said, “The fame of your literary ability has come to the ears of my master, Yen Sung, and he desires you to write immediately a poem on Spring.”
Who acts: Teacher, pleasing manner, fame · What happens: appear, please, say, come, desire, write · To what, where: Nien Chi, ears, you, poem · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Tea-house Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Teacher, pleasing manner, fame), 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 | When | when | SCONJ | _ | 4 appeared | mark |
| 2 | Teacher | Teacher | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 appeared | nsubj |
| 3 | Chi | Chi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Teacher | flat |
| 4 | appeared | appear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | Nien | Nien | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 Chi | compound |
| 6 | Chi | Chi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 appeared | obj |
| 7 | with | with | ADP | _ | 9 bows | case |
| 8 | profound | profound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 bows | compound |
| 9 | bows | bow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 appeared | obl |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 said | cc |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 manner | nmod:poss |
| 12 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 13 pleasing | advmod |
| 13 | pleasing | please | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 14 manner | amod |
| 14 | manner | manner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 said | nsubj |
| 15 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 appeared | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 come | punct |
| 17 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 25 come | punct |
| 18 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 fame | det |
| 19 | fame | fame | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 come | nsubj |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 ability | case |
| 21 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 ability | nmod:poss |
| 22 | literary | literary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 ability | amod |
| 23 | ability | ability | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 fame | nmod |
| 24 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 25 come | aux |
| 25 | come | come | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 15 said | ccomp |
| 26 | to | to | ADP | _ | 28 ears | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 ears | det |
| 28 | ears | ear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 come | obl |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 31 master | case |
| 30 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 master | nmod:poss |
| 31 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 ears | nmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 Yen | punct |
| 33 | Yen | Yen | PROPN | Number=Sing | 31 master | appos |
| 34 | Sung | Sung | PROPN | Number=Sing | 33 Yen | flat |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 desires | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 desires | cc |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 desires | nsubj |
| 38 | desires | desire | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 appeared | parataxis |
| 39 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 38 desires | obj |
| 40 | to | to | PART | _ | 41 write | mark |
| 41 | write | write | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 desires | advcl |
| 42 | immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 41 write | advmod |
| 43 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 44 poem | det |
| 44 | poem | poem | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 write | obj |
| 45 | on | on | ADP | _ | 46 Spring | case |
| 46 | Spring | spring | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 write | obl |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 38 desires | punct |
| 48 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 38 desires | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | appear | past | Teacher | Nien Chi | with profound bows | tree rules | |||
| 2 | please | gerund | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | past | teacher's pleasing manner | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | come in a quote | present · perfect | the fame of your literary ability | the ears of my master | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to ear=Initial_Location | ||||
| 5 | desire in a quote | present | teacher | you | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot you=Theme | ||||
| 6 | write in a quote | to-infinitive | teacher not said here | a poem | spring | immediately property | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poem=Theme |
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/pg75089/10/11/