Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 32
I am a large householder, but I have only one little boy and one little girl, and my heart is breaking with my grief, but I must give them up to save the lives of the many in the village.”
Who acts: I, heart · What happens: be, have, break, give up, save · To what, where: large householder, one little boy, boy, lives
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 (I, heart), 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 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 5 householder | nsubj |
| 2 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 householder | cop |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 householder | det |
| 4 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 householder | amod |
| 5 | householder | householder | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 have | punct |
| 7 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 have | cc |
| 8 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 9 have | nsubj |
| 9 | have | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 householder | parataxis |
| 10 | only | only | ADV | _ | 11 one | advmod |
| 11 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 boy | nummod |
| 12 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 boy | amod |
| 13 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 have | obj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 girl | cc |
| 15 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 17 girl | nummod |
| 16 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 girl | amod |
| 17 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 boy | conj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 breaking | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 breaking | cc |
| 20 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 heart | nmod:poss |
| 21 | heart | heart | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 breaking | nsubj |
| 22 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 23 breaking | aux |
| 23 | breaking | break | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 9 have | advcl |
| 24 | with | with | ADP | _ | 26 grief | case |
| 25 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 grief | nmod:poss |
| 26 | grief | grief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 breaking | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 give | punct |
| 28 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 31 give | cc |
| 29 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 31 give | nsubj |
| 30 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 31 give | aux |
| 31 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 householder | parataxis |
| 32 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 give | iobj |
| 33 | up | up | ADP | _ | 31 give | compound:prt |
| 34 | to | to | PART | _ | 35 save | mark |
| 35 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 give | advcl |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 lives | det |
| 37 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 save | obj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 many | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 many | det |
| 40 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 lives | nmod |
| 41 | in | in | ADP | _ | 43 village | case |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 village | det |
| 43 | village | village | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 many | obl |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 householder | punct |
| 45 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 householder | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | I | a large householder | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | have | present | I | one little boy and one little girl | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Patient | ||||
| 3 | break | present · progressive | my heart | with my grief | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with grief=Instrument | ||||
| 4 | give up | must | I | boy | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Source | ||||
| 5 | save | to-infinitive | I not said here | the lives of the many in the village | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
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/pg75089/16/32/