Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 99
Then Sun Hou called the king and said to him, “Look at your great ministers; how can you expect the country to grow and improve when your three greatest ministers are such demons?
Who acts: Sun, country, three greatest ministers · What happens: call, say, look, expect, grow, improve · To what, where: king, Sun, country, such demons · 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, country, three greatest ministers), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 called | advmod |
| 2 | Sun | Sun | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 called | nsubj |
| 3 | Hou | Hou | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Sun | flat |
| 4 | called | call | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 king | det |
| 6 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 called | obj |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 said | cc |
| 8 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 called | conj |
| 9 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 him | case |
| 10 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 said | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 Look | punct |
| 12 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 Look | punct |
| 13 | Look | look | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 8 said | parataxis |
| 14 | at | at | ADP | _ | 17 ministers | case |
| 15 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 ministers | nmod:poss |
| 16 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 ministers | amod |
| 17 | ministers | minister | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 Look | obl |
| 18 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 22 expect | punct |
| 19 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 22 expect | advmod |
| 20 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 22 expect | aux |
| 21 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 22 expect | nsubj |
| 22 | expect | expect | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 Look | conj |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 country | det |
| 24 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 expect | obj |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 grow | mark |
| 26 | grow | grow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 expect | xcomp |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 improve | cc |
| 28 | improve | improve | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 26 grow | conj |
| 29 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 36 demons | advmod |
| 30 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 33 ministers | nmod:poss |
| 31 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 33 ministers | nummod |
| 32 | greatest | great | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 33 ministers | amod |
| 33 | ministers | minister | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 demons | nsubj |
| 34 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 36 demons | cop |
| 35 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 demons | amod |
| 36 | demons | demon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 improve | obj |
| 37 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 called | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | call | past | Sun | the king | then | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent king=Recipient | |||
| 2 | say speech: ask | past | Sun not said here | Sun | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | look in a quote | infinitive | at your great ministers | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at minister=Theme | |||||
| 4 | expect in a quote | can | Sun | the country | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | grow not said to happen, in a quote | to-infinitive | the country not said here | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 6 | improve in a quote | infinitive | the country not said here | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 7 | is a in a quote | present | your three greatest ministers | such demons | tree rules |
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.
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