Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 13
There seemed no harm in this, and as no one liked to refuse Yen Sung anything, they decided to accept his invitation.
Who acts: carts, caravan · What happens: seem, like, refuse, sing, decide, accept · To what, where: harm, this, one, anything, invitation
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 (carts, caravan), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 seemed | expl |
| 2 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 4 harm | det |
| 4 | harm | harm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 seemed | obj |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 this | case |
| 6 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 2 seemed | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 decided | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 decided | cc |
| 9 | as | as | ADP | _ | 11 one | case |
| 10 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 11 one | det |
| 11 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 decided | obl |
| 12 | liked | like | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 one | acl |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 refuse | mark |
| 14 | refuse | refuse | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 liked | xcomp |
| 15 | Yen | Yen | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 Sung | compound |
| 16 | Sung | sing | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 anything | amod |
| 17 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 14 refuse | obj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 one | punct |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 decided | nsubj |
| 20 | decided | decide | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 seemed | conj |
| 21 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 accept | mark |
| 22 | accept | accept | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 decided | xcomp |
| 23 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 invitation | nmod:poss |
| 24 | invitation | invitation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 accept | obj |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 seemed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seem | past | no harm | this; there | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme harm=Attribute | ||||
| 2 | like | participle | no one not said here | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | refuse not said to happen | to-infinitive | anything | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme | |||||
| 4 | sing speech: express | participle | Yen compound | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | decide | past | carts = cart | as no one | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 6 | accept not said to happen | to-infinitive | carts = cart not said here | caravan's invitation | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent invitation=Theme | ||||
| 7 | invite | caravan | nom invitation «communication transitive»: 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/pg75089/17/13/