Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 68

This man was very unkind to him, and he was determined to make his escape; one day he was less carefully watched, and taking the open moment, he ran to the river bank just as some men were landing from a boat.

Who acts: man, boy, men · What happens: be, make, watch, take, run, land · To what, where: boy, escape, boat

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 (man, boy, men), 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	This	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 man	det
2	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 unkind	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 unkind	cop
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 unkind	advmod
5	unkind	unkind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 him	case
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 unkind	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 determined	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 determined	cc
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 determined	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 determined	cop
12	determined	determined	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 unkind	conj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 make	mark
14	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 determined	xcomp
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 escape	nmod:poss
16	escape	escape	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 make	obj
17	;	;	PUNCT	_	24 watched	punct
18	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 day	nummod
19	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 watched	obl:unmarked
20	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 watched	nsubj
21	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 watched	aux:pass
22	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	23 carefully	advmod
23	carefully	carefully	ADV	_	24 watched	advmod
24	watched	watch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 unkind	conj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 taking	punct
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 taking	cc
27	taking	take	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	24 watched	advcl
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 moment	det
29	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 moment	amod
30	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 taking	obj
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 ran	punct
32	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 ran	nsubj
33	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 watched	conj
34	to	to	ADP	_	37 bank	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 bank	det
36	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 bank	compound
37	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 ran	obl
38	just	just	ADV	_	43 landing	advmod
39	as	as	SCONJ	_	43 landing	mark
40	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	41 men	det
41	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 landing	nsubj
42	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 landing	aux
43	landing	land	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	33 ran	advcl
44	from	from	ADP	_	46 boat	case
45	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	46 boat	det
46	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 landing	obl
47	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 unkind	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	this man		boy			unkind property	tree rules
2	is	past	boy					determined property	tree rules
3	make	to-infinitive	boy not said here	boy's escape					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset escape=Product
4	watch	past · passive		boy			day	carefully property	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
5	take	gerund					moment		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
6	run	past	boy					to the river bank result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to bank=Result
7	land	past · progressive	some men			a boat			vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent
8	escape		boy						nom escape «act 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/pg75089/18/68/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 68

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 68