Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 66
Many years ago this cave was mine, but the river-demons took it, and now, to show my thanks, if you will all get on my back I will carry you over the river.”
Who acts: cave, river demons, you, I · What happens: be, take, show, get, carry · To what, where: mine, head, thanks, back, you, river
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 (cave, river demons, you, I), 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 | Many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 years | amod |
| 2 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 14 took | advmod |
| 4 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 5 cave | det |
| 5 | cave | cave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 mine | nsubj |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 mine | cop |
| 7 | mine | my | PRON | Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 ago | ccomp |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 took | punct |
| 9 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 14 took | cc |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 demons | det |
| 11 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 demons | compound |
| 12 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 river | punct |
| 13 | demons | demon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 took | nsubj |
| 14 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 15 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 took | obj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 show | punct |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 show | cc |
| 18 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 21 show | advmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 show | punct |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 show | mark |
| 21 | show | show | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 14 took | parataxis |
| 22 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 thanks | nmod:poss |
| 23 | thanks | thanks | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 show | obj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 get | punct |
| 25 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 29 get | mark |
| 26 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 29 get | nsubj |
| 27 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 29 get | aux |
| 28 | all | all | ADV | _ | 29 get | advmod |
| 29 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 show | parataxis |
| 30 | on | on | ADP | _ | 32 back | case |
| 31 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 back | nmod:poss |
| 32 | back | back | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 get | obl |
| 33 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 carry | nsubj |
| 34 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 35 carry | aux |
| 35 | carry | carry | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 get | parataxis |
| 36 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 35 carry | obj |
| 37 | over | over | ADP | _ | 39 river | case |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 river | det |
| 39 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 carry | obl |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 took | punct |
| 41 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 14 took | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | this cave | mine | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | take | past | the river demons | head | ago property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | |||
| 3 | show | to-infinitive | my thanks | now | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thanks=Recipient | ||||
| 4 | get a condition, not said to happen | future | you | my back | all property | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent on back=Source | |||
| 5 | carry | future | I | you | the river | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=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/pg75089/16/66/