Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 21

He was a student by nature, and on the death of his father and the confiscation of his property, spent all of his time at the “Hall of Classics,” studying for promotion.

Who acts: son, student, father · What happens: be, spend, study, die, confiscate · To what, where: student, all, death, property

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 (son, student, father), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 student	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 student	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 student	det
4	student	student	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 nature	case
6	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 student	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 spent	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 spent	cc
9	on	on	ADP	_	11 death	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 death	det
11	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 spent	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 father	case
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 father	nmod:poss
14	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 death	nmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 confiscation	cc
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 confiscation	det
17	confiscation	confiscation	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 father	conj
18	of	of	ADP	_	20 property	case
19	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 property	nmod:poss
20	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 confiscation	nmod
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 death	punct
22	spent	spend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 student	acl:relcl
23	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	22 spent	obj
24	of	of	ADP	_	26 time	case
25	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	26 time	nmod:poss
26	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 all	nmod
27	at	at	ADP	_	30 Hall	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 Hall	det
29	“	"	PUNCT	_	30 Hall	punct
30	Hall	Hall	PROPN	Number=Sing	22 spent	obl
31	of	of	ADP	_	32 Classics	case
32	Classics	classic	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 Hall	nmod
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 spent	punct
34	”	"	PUNCT	_	22 spent	punct
35	studying	study	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	22 spent	advcl
36	for	for	ADP	_	37 promotion	case
37	promotion	promotion	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 studying	obl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 student	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past	son	a student	by nature	tree rules
2	spend	past	a student not said here	all of son's time	on the death of son's father and the confiscation of son's property goal; at the Hall of Classics	vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent all=Asset on death=Goal
3	study	gerund	a student not said here		for promotion	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent for promotion=Attribute
4	die		son's father and the confiscation of son's property			nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent
5	confiscate			son's property		nom confiscation «act transitive»: of=patient

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/pg75089/17/21/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 21

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 21