Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 157
They had a terrible time getting to the other side, and as the book was paper all they could rescue of it were the words, “Ah-me t’on Fo,” and this they told the Emperor was all there was to the Classic.
Who acts: vanity, terrible time, book, paper, this, Emperor · What happens: have, get, be, rescue, tell · 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 (vanity, terrible time, book, paper), 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 had | nsubj |
| 2 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 time | det |
| 4 | terrible | terrible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 time | amod |
| 5 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 had | obj |
| 6 | getting | get | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 5 time | acl |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 side | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 side | det |
| 9 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 side | amod |
| 10 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 getting | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 rescue | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 rescue | cc |
| 13 | as | as | ADP | _ | 17 paper | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 book | det |
| 15 | book | book | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 paper | nsubj |
| 16 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 paper | cop |
| 17 | paper | paper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 rescue | nsubj |
| 18 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 17 paper | det |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 rescue | nsubj |
| 20 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 rescue | aux |
| 21 | rescue | rescue | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 had | parataxis |
| 22 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 words | case |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 words | nsubj |
| 24 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 words | cop |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 words | det |
| 26 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 rescue | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 me | punct |
| 28 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 31 me | punct |
| 29 | Ah | ah | INTJ | _ | 31 me | discourse |
| 30 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 31 me | punct |
| 31 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 21 rescue | parataxis |
| 32 | t’on | t'on | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 Fo | nmod:desc |
| 33 | Fo | Fo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 31 me | conj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 me | punct |
| 35 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 21 rescue | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 told | cc |
| 37 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 39 told | nsubj |
| 38 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 told | nsubj |
| 39 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 had | conj |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 Emperor | det |
| 41 | Emperor | Emperor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 48 Classic | nsubj |
| 42 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 was | cop |
| 43 | all | all | ADV | _ | 45 was | advmod |
| 44 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 45 was | expl |
| 45 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 48 Classic | cop |
| 46 | to | to | ADP | _ | 48 Classic | case |
| 47 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 48 Classic | det |
| 48 | Classic | Classic | PROPN | Number=Sing | 39 told | ccomp |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | past | vanity | time | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | get | gerund | a terrible time not said here | to the other side result | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to side=Result | ||||
| 3 | is | past | the book | as all paper | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | rescue | could | all paper | vanity nsubj; me parataxis | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | is | past | paper | of the words | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | tell speech: assert | past | this | vanity nsubj | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 7 | is | past | the Emperor | to the Classic | tree rules |
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/pg75089/16/157/