Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 152
At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the mountain people to help those in distress, to cheer the sad and discouraged, and found him always ready to serve as a messenger of the gods.
Who acts: Worthies, sage · What happens: send, help, cheer, find, serve · To what, where: sage, close, those, distress, sad
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 (Worthies, sage), 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 | At | at | ADP | _ | 3 close | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 close | det |
| 3 | close | close | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 sent | obl |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 novitiate | case |
| 5 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 novitiate | nmod:poss |
| 6 | novitiate | novitiate | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 close | nmod |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 sent | nsubj |
| 8 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 sent | obj |
| 10 | among | among | ADP | _ | 13 people | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 people | det |
| 12 | mountain | mountain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 people | compound |
| 13 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 sent | obl |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 help | mark |
| 15 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 sent | advcl |
| 16 | those | that | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 15 help | obj |
| 17 | in | in | ADP | _ | 18 distress | case |
| 18 | distress | distress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 those | nmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 cheer | punct |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 cheer | mark |
| 21 | cheer | cheer | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 help | conj |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 sad | det |
| 23 | sad | sad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 cheer | obj |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 discouraged | cc |
| 25 | discouraged | discouraged | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 sad | conj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 found | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 found | cc |
| 28 | found | find | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 sent | conj |
| 29 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 found | obj |
| 30 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 31 ready | advmod |
| 31 | ready | ready | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 found | xcomp |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 serve | mark |
| 33 | serve | serve | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 ready | xcomp |
| 34 | as | as | ADP | _ | 36 messenger | case |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 36 messenger | det |
| 36 | messenger | messenger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 serve | obl |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 39 gods | case |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 gods | det |
| 39 | gods | god | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 messenger | nmod |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 sent | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | send | past | Worthies = worthy | sage | the close of sage's novitiate | among the mountain people | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||
| 2 | help | to-infinitive | Worthies = worthy not said here | those | distress | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Beneficiary | |||
| 3 | cheer | to-infinitive | Worthies = worthy not said here | the sad | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sad=Experiencer | ||||
| 4 | find | past | Worthies = worthy not said here | sage | ready property | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic | |||
| 5 | serve | to-infinitive | sage not said here | as a messenger of the gods | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as messenger=Attribute |
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/pg75089/10/152/