Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 156
Then the turtle asked them if they had remembered his request, and when they said they had forgotten it, the turtle was so angry he dropped down from under them and left them in the water.
Who acts: turtle, vanity · What happens: ask, remember, say, forget, be, drop down · To what, where: vanity, request, water · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (turtle, vanity), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 asked | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 turtle | det |
| 3 | turtle | turtle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 asked | nsubj |
| 4 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 asked | obj |
| 6 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 9 remembered | mark |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 remembered | nsubj |
| 8 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 remembered | aux |
| 9 | remembered | remember | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 asked | ccomp |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 request | nmod:poss |
| 11 | request | request | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 remembered | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 said | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 said | cc |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 16 said | advmod |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 said | nsubj |
| 16 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 asked | parataxis |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 forgotten | nsubj |
| 18 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 forgotten | aux |
| 19 | forgotten | forget | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 16 said | ccomp |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 forgotten | obj |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 angry | punct |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 turtle | det |
| 23 | turtle | turtle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 angry | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 angry | cop |
| 25 | so | so | ADV | _ | 26 angry | advmod |
| 26 | angry | angry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 forgotten | parataxis |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 dropped | nsubj |
| 28 | dropped | drop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 forgotten | parataxis |
| 29 | down | down | ADV | _ | 28 dropped | advmod |
| 30 | from | from | ADP | _ | 32 them | case |
| 31 | under | under | ADP | _ | 32 them | case |
| 32 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 dropped | obl |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 left | cc |
| 34 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 dropped | conj |
| 35 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 left | obj |
| 36 | in | in | ADP | _ | 38 water | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 water | det |
| 38 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 left | obl |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | the turtle | vanity | then | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | remember a condition, not said to happen | past · perfect | vanity | turtle's request | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent request=Theme | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | past | vanity | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | forget | past · perfect | vanity | request | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | is | past | the turtle | angry property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | drop down | past | turtle | from vanity; down property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme from they=Trajectory | ||||
| 7 | leave | past | turtle not said here | vanity | the water | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme in water=Location | |||
| 8 | request | turtle | nom request «communication transitive»: poss=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/156/