Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 124
“But,” urged the wise man, “if you desire to attain the true life you must be ready to save, not to destroy men.
Who acts: you · What happens: urge, desire, attain, be, save, not destroy · To what, where: wise man, true life, men
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 (you), 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 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 urged | punct |
| 2 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 5 urged | cc |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 But | punct |
| 4 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 But | punct |
| 5 | urged | urge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 man | det |
| 7 | wise | wise | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 man | amod |
| 8 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 urged | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 ready | punct |
| 10 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 22 ready | punct |
| 11 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 13 desire | mark |
| 12 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 13 desire | nsubj |
| 13 | desire | desire | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 22 ready | advcl |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 attain | mark |
| 15 | attain | attain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 desire | xcomp |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 life | det |
| 17 | true | true | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 life | amod |
| 18 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 attain | obj |
| 19 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 22 ready | nsubj |
| 20 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 22 ready | aux |
| 21 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 22 ready | cop |
| 22 | ready | ready | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 urged | conj |
| 23 | to | to | PART | _ | 24 save | mark |
| 24 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 ready | xcomp |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 destroy | punct |
| 26 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 28 destroy | advmod |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 destroy | mark |
| 28 | destroy | destroy | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 save | conj |
| 29 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 destroy | obj |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 urged | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | urge | past | the wise man | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Recipient | |||||
| 2 | desire a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | you | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | attain not said to happen, in a quote | to-infinitive | you not said here | the true life | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme | ||||
| 4 | is in a quote | must | you | ready property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | save in a quote | to-infinitive | you not said here | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | not destroy in a quote | to-infinitive | you not said here | men | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient |
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/pg75089/10/124/