Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 17
The Boxers had started down the street toward the place we were in, but had been charged and driven back by the marines, under Captain Hall.
Who acts: Boxers, we, marines · What happens: start, be, charge, drive back · To what, where: place, Captain Hall
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Chinese Heroism. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Boxers, we, marines), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Boxers | det |
| 2 | Boxers | Boxer | PROPN | Number=Plur | 4 started | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 started | aux |
| 4 | started | start | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | down | down | ADP | _ | 7 street | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 street | det |
| 7 | street | street | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 started | obl |
| 8 | toward | toward | ADP | _ | 10 place | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 place | det |
| 10 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 started | obl |
| 11 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 in | nsubj |
| 12 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 in | cop |
| 13 | in | in | ADV | _ | 10 place | acl:relcl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 charged | punct |
| 15 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 18 charged | cc |
| 16 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 charged | aux |
| 17 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 18 charged | aux:pass |
| 18 | charged | charge | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 started | parataxis |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 driven | cc |
| 20 | driven | drive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 charged | conj |
| 21 | back | back | ADV | _ | 20 driven | advmod |
| 22 | by | by | ADP | _ | 24 marines | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 marines | det |
| 24 | marines | marine | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 charged | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 Hall | punct |
| 26 | under | under | ADP | _ | 28 Hall | case |
| 27 | Captain | Captain | PROPN | Number=Sing | 28 Hall | compound |
| 28 | Hall | Hall | PROPN | Number=Sing | 18 charged | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 started | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | start | past · perfect | the Boxers | down the street; toward the place | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | is | past | we | the place not said here | in property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | charge | past · perfect · passive | the marines | Captain Hall | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under hall=Trajectory | ||||
| 4 | drive back | participle | the marines not said here | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=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/pg75089/12/17/