Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 4
The brave British soldier went to his dangerous post not knowing when a stray bullet would pick him off.
Who acts: brave British soldier, stray bullet · What happens: go, not know, pick off · To what, where: dangerous post, soldier
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 (brave British soldier, stray bullet), 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 | 4 soldier | det |
| 2 | brave | brave | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 soldier | amod |
| 3 | British | British | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 soldier | amod |
| 4 | soldier | soldier | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 went | nsubj |
| 5 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 9 post | case |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 post | nmod:poss |
| 8 | dangerous | dangerous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 post | amod |
| 9 | post | post | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 went | obl |
| 10 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 knowing | advmod |
| 11 | knowing | know | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 went | advcl |
| 12 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 17 pick | mark |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 bullet | det |
| 14 | stray | stray | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 bullet | amod |
| 15 | bullet | bullet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 pick | nsubj |
| 16 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 17 pick | aux |
| 17 | pick | pick | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 knowing | advcl |
| 18 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 pick | obj |
| 19 | off | off | ADP | _ | 17 pick | compound:prt |
| 20 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | the brave British soldier | soldier's dangerous post | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to post=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | not know | gerund | the brave British soldier not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | pick off | would | a stray bullet | soldier | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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/pg75089/12/4/