Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 154
They got on his back and when half-way over he asked if they had found the “Book” and seen the “great Buddha.”
Who acts: vanity, turtle · What happens: get, ask, find, see · To what, where: back, Book, great Buddha
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 (vanity, turtle), 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 got | nsubj |
| 2 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | on | on | ADP | _ | 5 back | case |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 back | nmod:poss |
| 5 | back | back | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 got | obl |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 way | cc |
| 7 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 way | advmod |
| 8 | half | half | NOUN | Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac | 10 way | compound |
| 9 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 8 half | punct |
| 10 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 back | conj |
| 11 | over | over | SCONJ | _ | 13 asked | mark |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 asked | nsubj |
| 13 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 got | advcl |
| 14 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 17 found | mark |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 found | nsubj |
| 16 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 found | aux |
| 17 | found | find | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 13 asked | ccomp |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 Book | det |
| 19 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 Book | punct |
| 20 | Book | Book | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 found | obj |
| 21 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 Book | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 seen | cc |
| 23 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 17 found | conj |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 Buddha | det |
| 25 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 27 Buddha | punct |
| 26 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 Buddha | amod |
| 27 | Buddha | Buddha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 23 seen | obj |
| 28 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 got | punct |
| 29 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 got | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | get | past | vanity | turtle's back and half way | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent on back=Source | ||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask | past | turtle | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | find a condition, not said to happen | past · perfect | vanity | the Book | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Topic | ||||
| 4 | see | participle | vanity not said here | the great Buddha | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer buddha=Stimulus |
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/pg75089/16/154/