Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 81

When the “Minister Deer” saw the calamity he said, “Our great elder brother is dead, I will see what I can do,” so he said, “Let us see who can cut his head off, throw it away, get it again and grow it on.”

Who acts: Minister Deer, Deer, great elder brother, us · What happens: see, say, be, do, let, cut off · To what, where: calamity, us, head · 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 (Minister Deer, Deer, great elder brother, us), 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	7 saw	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Deer	det
3	“	"	PUNCT	_	5 Deer	punct
4	Minister	Minister	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Deer	compound
5	Deer	Deer	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 saw	nsubj
6	”	"	PUNCT	_	5 Deer	punct
7	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 said	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 calamity	det
9	calamity	calamity	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 saw	obj
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 said	nsubj
11	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 dead	punct
13	“	"	PUNCT	_	19 dead	punct
14	Our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 brother	nmod:poss
15	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 brother	amod
16	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 brother	compound
17	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 dead	nsubj
18	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 dead	cop
19	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 said	ccomp
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 see	punct
21	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	23 see	nsubj
22	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	23 see	aux
23	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 dead	parataxis
24	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	27 do	obj
25	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	27 do	nsubj
26	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	27 do	aux
27	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 see	ccomp
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 see	punct
29	”	"	PUNCT	_	19 dead	punct
30	so	so	ADV	_	32 said	advmod
31	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 said	nsubj
32	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 said	advcl
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 Let	punct
34	“	"	PUNCT	_	35 Let	punct
35	Let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 said	ccomp
36	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	35 Let	obj
37	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 Let	xcomp
38	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	40 cut	nsubj
39	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 cut	aux
40	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 see	ccomp
41	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 head	nmod:poss
42	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 cut	obj
43	off	off	ADP	_	40 cut	compound:prt
44	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 throw	punct
45	throw	throw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 Let	conj
46	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 throw	obj
47	away	away	ADV	_	45 throw	advmod
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 get	punct
49	get	get	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	35 Let	parataxis
50	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 get	obj
51	again	again	ADV	_	49 get	advmod
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 grow	cc
53	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	49 get	conj
54	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 grow	obj
55	on	on	ADP	_	53 grow	compound:prt
56	.	.	PUNCT	_	35 Let	punct
57	”	"	PUNCT	_	35 Let	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	see	past	the Minister Deer	the calamity			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer calamity=Stimulus
2	say speech: assert	past	Deer				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	is in a quote	present	Our great elder brother			dead property	tree rules
4	see in a quote	future	Deer				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
5	do in a quote	can	Deer			what obj	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
6	say speech: assert	past	Deer				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
7	let in a quote	infinitive		us			tree rules
8	see in a quote	infinitive	us not said here				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
9	cut off in a quote	can		Deer's head		who nsubj	vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality
10	throw away in a quote	infinitive		head		away property	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
11	get in a quote	infinitive		head	again		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
12	grow on in a quote	infinitive		head			vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=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/pg75089/16/81/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 81

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 81