Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Literary Glory, sentence 24

Five years ago, during the heavy rains, our house fell down and we were too poor to hire enough men to rebuild, so I helped make the mud bricks and when they came to building the walls I sent up to them all the mud and plaster used.

Who acts: house, we, I, bricks · What happens: fall down, be, hire, rebuild, help, make · To what, where: enough men, mud bricks, walls, bricks

This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Literary Glory. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (house, we, I, bricks), 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	Five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 years	nummod
2	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ago	obl:unmarked
3	ago	ago	ADV	_	12 fell	advmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 ago	punct
5	during	during	ADP	_	8 rains	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rains	det
7	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 rains	amod
8	rains	rain	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ago	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 ago	punct
10	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 house	nmod:poss
11	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 fell	nsubj
12	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	down	down	ADV	_	12 fell	advmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 poor	cc
15	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	18 poor	nsubj
16	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 poor	cop
17	too	too	ADV	_	18 poor	advmod
18	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 fell	conj
19	to	to	PART	_	20 hire	mark
20	hire	hire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 poor	xcomp
21	enough	enough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 men	amod
22	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 hire	obj
23	to	to	PART	_	24 rebuild	mark
24	rebuild	rebuild	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	20 hire	xcomp
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 helped	punct
26	so	so	ADV	_	28 helped	advmod
27	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	28 helped	nsubj
28	helped	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 fell	parataxis
29	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	28 helped	xcomp
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 bricks	det
31	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 bricks	compound
32	bricks	brick	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 make	obj
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 came	cc
34	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	36 came	advmod
35	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 came	nsubj
36	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	28 helped	conj
37	to	to	PART	_	38 building	mark
38	building	building	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 came	xcomp
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 walls	det
40	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	38 building	obj
41	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	42 sent	nsubj
42	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	40 walls	acl:relcl
43	up	up	ADP	_	42 sent	compound:prt
44	to	to	ADP	_	45 them	case
45	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 sent	obl
46	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	48 mud	det:predet
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 mud	det
48	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 building	obj
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	50 plaster	cc
50	plaster	plaster	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 mud	conj
51	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	38 building	advcl
52	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 fell	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	fall down	past	our house			ago, down property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	past	we			poor property	tree rules
3	hire	to-infinitive	we not said here	enough men			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme clause=Attribute
4	rebuild	to-infinitive	we not said here				vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	help	past	I				vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
6	make	infinitive	I not said here	the mud bricks			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset brick=Product
7	come	past	bricks = brick				tree rules
8	building	to-infinitive	bricks = brick not said here	the walls		all mud and plaster obj	tree rules
9	send up	past	I	the walls not said here	bricks = brick		vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent wall=Theme to they=Destination
10	use	participle	bricks = brick not said here				vn eat-39.1 «NP 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.

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🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Literary Glory, sentence 24

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Literary Glory, sentence 24