Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Present, sentence 30
When Jade was seventeen the young man she was engaged to marry died and she took the vow of “widowhood,” and also that she would help support the aged father and mother of her betrothed.
Who acts: Jade, young man · What happens: be, engage, marry, die, take, help · To what, where: seventeen, Jade, vow, aged father, mother, widowhood
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 (Jade, young man), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 seventeen | advmod |
| 2 | Jade | Jade | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 seventeen | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 seventeen | cop |
| 4 | seventeen | seventeen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 died | obl |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 man | det |
| 6 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 man | amod |
| 7 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 died | nsubj |
| 8 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 engaged | nsubj |
| 9 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 engaged | aux:pass |
| 10 | engaged | engage | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 man | acl:relcl |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 marry | mark |
| 12 | marry | marry | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 engaged | xcomp |
| 13 | died | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 took | cc |
| 15 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 took | nsubj |
| 16 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 died | conj |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 vow | det |
| 18 | vow | vow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 took | obj |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 widowhood | case |
| 20 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 21 widowhood | punct |
| 21 | widowhood | widowhood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 vow | nmod |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 took | punct |
| 23 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 died | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 help | cc |
| 25 | also | also | ADV | _ | 29 help | advmod |
| 26 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 29 help | mark |
| 27 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 help | nsubj |
| 28 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 29 help | aux |
| 29 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 died | conj |
| 30 | support | support | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 help | xcomp |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 father | det |
| 32 | aged | aged | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 father | amod |
| 33 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 support | obj |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 mother | cc |
| 35 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 father | conj |
| 36 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 38 betrothed | mark |
| 37 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 38 betrothed | nmod:poss |
| 38 | betrothed | betroth | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 35 mother | acl |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 died | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | Jade | seventeen | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | engage | past · passive | Jade | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute | |||||
| 3 | marry | to-infinitive | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 4 | die | past | the young man | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | |||||
| 5 | take | past | Jade | the vow of widowhood | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vow=Theme | ||||
| 6 | help | would | Jade | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 7 | support | infinitive | Jade not said here | the aged father and mother | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer father=Stimulus | ||||
| 8 | betroth | participle | mother not said here | Jade nmod:poss | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 9 | vow | widowhood | nom vow «communication transitive»: of=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.
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