Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 104
He put it off from month to month, but it did not become any easier as time went by, and the riches, beautiful home, and family were driving all that dark past more and more from his mind.
Who acts: Tu, temptation, riches · What happens: put off, not become, go by, drive, mind · To what, where: temptation, dark past, mind
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tu, temptation, riches), 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 put | nsubj |
| 2 | put | put | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 put | obj |
| 4 | off | off | ADP | _ | 2 put | compound:prt |
| 5 | from | from | ADP | _ | 6 month | case |
| 6 | month | month | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 put | obl |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 8 month | case |
| 8 | month | month | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 put | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 become | punct |
| 10 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 14 become | cc |
| 11 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 become | nsubj |
| 12 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 become | aux |
| 13 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 14 become | advmod |
| 14 | become | become | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 put | advcl |
| 15 | any | any | ADV | _ | 16 easier | advmod |
| 16 | easier | easy | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 14 become | xcomp |
| 17 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 19 went | mark |
| 18 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 went | obl:unmarked |
| 19 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 easier | advcl |
| 20 | by | by | ADP | _ | 19 went | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 driving | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 driving | cc |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 riches | det |
| 24 | riches | rich | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 driving | nsubj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 home | punct |
| 26 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 home | amod |
| 27 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 riches | conj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 family | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 family | cc |
| 30 | family | family | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 riches | conj |
| 31 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 driving | aux |
| 32 | driving | drive | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 put | advcl |
| 33 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 36 past | det:predet |
| 34 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 36 past | det |
| 35 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 past | amod |
| 36 | past | past | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 driving | obj |
| 37 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 32 driving | advmod |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 more | cc |
| 39 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 37 more | conj |
| 40 | from | from | ADP | _ | 42 mind | case |
| 41 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 mind | nmod:poss |
| 42 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 driving | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 put | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | put off | past | Tu | temptation | month | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal | |||
| 2 | not become | past · do-support | temptation | easy property | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 3 | go by | past | temptation not said here | time | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | drive | past · progressive | the riches and beautiful home and family | all dark past | Tu's mind | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent past=Theme from mind=Trajectory | |||
| 5 | mind | Tu | nom mind «cognition 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/pg75089/18/104/