Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 1

In the year 629 A.D., a very devout monk, T’ang Sung, hoping to achieve merit by which he might avoid death and that he might become one of the Eternal Holy Ones, accepted the proposal of his Emperor that he should go to the west in search of the famous Buddhist Classics.

Who acts: T’ang, Emperor · What happens: hope, achieve, avoid, become, accept, go · To what, where: merit, death, one, proposal, year A.D, search

This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (T’ang, Emperor), 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	In	in	ADP	_	5 A.D	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 A.D	det
3	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 A.D	compound
4	629	629	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	3 year	flat
5	A.D	A.D	PROPN	Number=Sing	38 accepted	obl
6	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 A.D	punct
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 monk	punct
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 monk	det
9	very	very	ADV	_	10 devout	advmod
10	devout	devout	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 monk	amod
11	monk	monk	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 A.D	appos
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 T’ang	punct
13	T’ang	T'ang	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 monk	appos
14	Sung	Sung	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 T’ang	flat
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 hoping	punct
16	hoping	hope	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 monk	conj
17	to	to	PART	_	18 achieve	mark
18	achieve	achieve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 hoping	xcomp
19	merit	merit	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 achieve	obj
20	by	by	ADP	_	21 which	case
21	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	24 avoid	obl
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 avoid	nsubj
23	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	24 avoid	aux
24	avoid	avoid	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 merit	acl:relcl
25	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 avoid	obj
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 become	cc
27	that	that	SCONJ	_	30 become	mark
28	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 become	nsubj
29	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	30 become	aux
30	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 achieve	conj
31	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	30 become	obj
32	of	of	ADP	_	36 Ones	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 Ones	det
34	Eternal	Eternal	PROPN	Number=Sing	36 Ones	compound
35	Holy	Holy	PROPN	_	36 Ones	compound
36	Ones	One	PROPN	Number=Plur	31 one	nmod
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 A.D	punct
38	accepted	accept	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 proposal	det
40	proposal	proposal	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 accepted	obj
41	of	of	ADP	_	43 Emperor	case
42	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	43 Emperor	nmod:poss
43	Emperor	emperor	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 proposal	nmod
44	that	that	SCONJ	_	47 go	mark
45	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	47 go	nsubj
46	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	47 go	aux
47	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 accepted	advcl
48	to	to	ADP	_	50 west	case
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 west	det
50	west	west	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 go	obl
51	in	in	ADP	_	52 search	case
52	search	search	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 go	obl
53	of	of	ADP	_	57 Classics	case
54	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	57 Classics	det
55	famous	famous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	57 Classics	amod
56	Buddhist	Buddhist	PROPN	Number=Sing	57 Classics	compound
57	Classics	classic	NOUN	Number=Plur	52 search	nmod
58	.	.	PUNCT	_	38 accepted	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	hope	gerund					vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	achieve not said to happen	to-infinitive		merit			vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent merit=Eventuality
3	avoid	might	T’ang = t'ang	death		by merit	vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent death=Location
4	become	might	T’ang = t'ang	one of the Eternal Holy Ones			vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Patient one=Result
5	accept	past		the proposal of T’ang's Emperor	the year A.D		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent proposal=Theme
6	go	should	T’ang = t'ang		search of the famous Buddhist Classics	to the west	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to west=Initial_Location
7	propose		T’ang's Emperor				nom proposal «communication intransitive»: of=agent
8	search			the famous Buddhist Classics			nom search «act 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/1/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 1

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 1