Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 87
So Sun Hou said, “I will try first,” and immediately cut off his head, upon which Minister Deer said, “I can only cut mine off once and I won’t do it now.”
Who acts: Sun, Minister · What happens: say, try, cut off, not do · To what, where: head, Minister · 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 (Sun, Minister), 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 | So | so | ADV | _ | 4 said | advmod |
| 2 | Sun | Sun | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 said | nsubj |
| 3 | Hou | Hou | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Sun | flat |
| 4 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 try | punct |
| 6 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 try | punct |
| 7 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 9 try | nsubj |
| 8 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 try | aux |
| 9 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 said | ccomp |
| 10 | first | first | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 9 try | advmod |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 try | punct |
| 12 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 try | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 cut | cc |
| 14 | immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 15 cut | advmod |
| 15 | cut | cut | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 9 try | parataxis |
| 16 | off | off | ADP | _ | 15 cut | compound:prt |
| 17 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 head | nmod:poss |
| 18 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 cut | obj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 said | punct |
| 20 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 21 which | case |
| 21 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 24 said | obl |
| 22 | Minister | Minister | PROPN | Number=Sing | 24 said | nsubj |
| 23 | Deer | Deer | PROPN | Number=Sing | 22 Minister | flat |
| 24 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 cut | conj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 cut | punct |
| 26 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 30 cut | punct |
| 27 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 30 cut | nsubj |
| 28 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 30 cut | aux |
| 29 | only | only | ADV | _ | 30 cut | advmod |
| 30 | cut | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 said | ccomp |
| 31 | mine | my | PRON | Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 cut | obj |
| 32 | off | off | ADP | _ | 30 cut | compound:prt |
| 33 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 30 cut | advmod |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 do | cc |
| 35 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 38 do | nsubj |
| 36 | wo | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 38 do | aux |
| 37 | n’t | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 38 do | advmod |
| 38 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 cut | conj |
| 39 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 do | obj |
| 40 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 38 do | advmod |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 said | punct |
| 42 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | Sun | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | try in a quote | future | Sun | first property | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | cut off | participle | Sun's head | immediately property | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | Minister | which obl | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | cut off in a quote | can | Minister | Minister | once property | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector my=Eventuality | |||
| 6 | not do in a quote | future | Minister | head | now | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
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/pg75089/16/87/