Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 71
The king asked them where they were going and also demanded a proof of their Imperial mission.
Who acts: king, lives · What happens: ask, go, demand, proof · To what, where: lives, proof, Imperial mission
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 (king, lives), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 king | det |
| 2 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 asked | nsubj |
| 3 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 asked | obj |
| 5 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 8 going | advmod |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 going | nsubj |
| 7 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 going | aux |
| 8 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 3 asked | advcl |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 demanded | cc |
| 10 | also | also | ADV | _ | 11 demanded | advmod |
| 11 | demanded | demand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 asked | conj |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 proof | det |
| 13 | proof | proof | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 demanded | obj |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 mission | case |
| 15 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 mission | nmod:poss |
| 16 | Imperial | imperial | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 mission | amod |
| 17 | mission | mission | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 proof | nmod |
| 18 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | the king | lives = life | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | go | past · progressive | lives = life | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | demand speech: request | past | the king not said here | a proof of lives's Imperial mission | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme proof=Precondition | ||||
| 4 | proof | lives's Imperial mission | nom proof «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg75089/16/71/