Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 27
“Yes,” they said, “we did, but we were afraid our children would cry and endanger all the others.
Who acts: questions, we, children · What happens: say, do, be, cry, endanger · To what, where: others · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (questions, we, children), 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 | _ | 6 said | punct |
| 2 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 6 said | discourse |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 Yes | punct |
| 4 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 Yes | punct |
| 5 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 said | nsubj |
| 6 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 did | punct |
| 8 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 did | punct |
| 9 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 10 did | nsubj |
| 10 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 said | ccomp |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 afraid | punct |
| 12 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 15 afraid | cc |
| 13 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 15 afraid | nsubj |
| 14 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 afraid | cop |
| 15 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 said | advcl |
| 16 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 children | nmod:poss |
| 17 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 cry | nsubj |
| 18 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 cry | aux |
| 19 | cry | cry | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 afraid | ccomp |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 endanger | cc |
| 21 | endanger | endanger | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 cry | conj |
| 22 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 24 others | det:predet |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 others | det |
| 24 | others | other | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 endanger | obj |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | questions = question | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | do in a quote | past | we | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | is in a quote | past | we | afraid property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | cry speech: express in a quote | would | our children | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | endanger in a quote | infinitive | our children not said here | all others | tree rules |
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/pg75089/12/27/