Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Present, sentence 16
They said, “If we go, we shall certainly be captured, and either killed or held for a big ransom.”
Who acts: neighbours, we · What happens: say, go, capture, kill, hold · To what, where: we · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Present. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (neighbours, we), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 said | nsubj |
| 2 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 captured | punct |
| 4 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 captured | punct |
| 5 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 7 go | mark |
| 6 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 7 go | nsubj |
| 7 | go | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 captured | advcl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 go | punct |
| 9 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 captured | nsubj |
| 10 | shall | shall | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 13 captured | aux |
| 11 | certainly | certainly | ADV | _ | 13 captured | advmod |
| 12 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 13 captured | aux:pass |
| 13 | captured | capture | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 said | ccomp |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 killed | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 killed | cc |
| 16 | either | either | ADV | PronType=Ind | 17 killed | advmod |
| 17 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 said | ccomp |
| 18 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 19 held | cc |
| 19 | held | hold | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 killed | conj |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 23 ransom | case |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 ransom | det |
| 22 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 ransom | amod |
| 23 | ransom | ransom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 held | obl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 said | punct |
| 25 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | neighbours = neighbour | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | go a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | we | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | capture in a quote | shall · passive | we | certainly property | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 4 | kill in a quote | participle | either property | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 5 | hold in a quote | participle | for a big ransom | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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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