Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 102
They then talked over their sorrows, and she said, “If in a few months’ time the gods give us a son, what is your wish to name him?
Who acts: gods, use · What happens: talk, say, give, be, name, sorrow · To what, where: sorrows, son, wish · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gods, use), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 talked | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 talked | advmod |
| 3 | talked | talk | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | over | over | ADP | _ | 6 sorrows | case |
| 5 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 sorrows | nmod:poss |
| 6 | sorrows | sorrow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 talked | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 said | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 said | cc |
| 9 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 said | nsubj |
| 10 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 talked | conj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 wish | punct |
| 12 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 30 wish | punct |
| 13 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 22 give | mark |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 19 time | case |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 months | det |
| 16 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 months | amod |
| 17 | months | month | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 time | nmod:poss |
| 18 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 17 months | case |
| 19 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 give | obl |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 gods | det |
| 21 | gods | god | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 give | nsubj |
| 22 | give | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 30 wish | advcl |
| 23 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 22 give | iobj |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 son | det |
| 25 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 give | iobj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 give | punct |
| 27 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 30 wish | nsubj |
| 28 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 30 wish | cop |
| 29 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 wish | nmod:poss |
| 30 | wish | wish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 said | ccomp |
| 31 | to | to | PART | _ | 32 name | mark |
| 32 | name | name | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 wish | acl |
| 33 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 name | obj |
| 34 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 talked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | talk | past | gods = god | gods's sorrows | then | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||
| 2 | say speech: ask | past | use | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | give a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | the gods | a son | time | us iobj | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient son=Theme | ||
| 4 | is a in a quote | present | your wish | what nsubj; your nmod:poss | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | name in a quote | to-infinitive | use not said here | son | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 6 | sorrow | gods = god | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg75089/17/102/