Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 41

He sought the latter on returning home, told of his morning’s experience, of the beauty of the lady, and his desire to secure her if possible.

Who acts: Nien, morning · What happens: seek, return, tell, secure, experience, desire · To what, where: latter, keeper · 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 (Nien, morning), 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	2 sought	nsubj
2	sought	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 latter	det
4	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sought	obj
5	on	on	SCONJ	_	6 returning	mark
6	returning	return	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 sought	advcl
7	home	home	ADV	_	6 returning	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 told	punct
9	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 sought	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	14 experience	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 morning	nmod:poss
12	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 experience	nmod:poss
13	’s	's	PART	_	12 morning	case
14	experience	experience	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 beauty	punct
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 beauty	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 beauty	det
18	beauty	beauty	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 lady	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 lady	det
21	lady	lady	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 beauty	nmod
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 desire	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 desire	cc
24	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 desire	nmod:poss
25	desire	desire	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	ccomp
26	to	to	PART	_	27 secure	mark
27	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 desire	acl
28	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 secure	obj
29	if	if	SCONJ	_	30 possible	mark
30	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 secure	advcl
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 sought	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	seek	past	Nien	the latter		vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent latter=Theme
2	return	gerund	Nien not said here		home property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	tell speech: assert	past	Nien not said here		of Nien's morning's experience; of the beauty of the lady; Nien's desire ccomp	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	secure	to-infinitive	Nien not said here	keeper		vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition she=Theme
5	experience		Nien's morning			nom experience «cognition transitive»: poss=agent
6	desire		Nien			nom desire «feeling 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/pg75089/17/41/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 41

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 41