Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Jade Treasure, sentence 7
As he declined to give a reason, other than “I have business,” his request was refused.
Who acts: workman · What happens: decline, not give, refuse, request · To what, where: reason, request
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Jade Treasure. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (workman), 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 | As | as | SCONJ | _ | 3 declined | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 declined | nsubj |
| 3 | declined | decline | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 give | mark |
| 5 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 declined | xcomp |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 reason | det |
| 7 | reason | reason | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 give | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 other | punct |
| 9 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 reason | amod |
| 10 | than | than | SCONJ | _ | 20 refused | mark |
| 11 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 refused | punct |
| 12 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 have | nsubj |
| 13 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 20 refused | aux |
| 14 | business | business | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 have | obj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 have | punct |
| 16 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 have | punct |
| 17 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 request | nmod:poss |
| 18 | request | request | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 refused | nsubj:pass |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 refused | aux:pass |
| 20 | refused | refuse | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 9 other | advcl |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 declined | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | decline | past | workman | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 2 | not give | to-infinitive | workman not said here | a reason | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme | ||||
| 3 | refuse | present · passive | workman's request | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 4 | request | workman | nom request «communication transitive»: poss=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/pg75089/11/7/