Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 69
The boy sought their protection, told his story, and before he was through, he was in the arms of one of the men, who proved to be the friend, Mr. Wang, who had taken his father to the place of banishment.
Who acts: boy, men, friend · What happens: seek, tell, be, prove, take, protect · To what, where: protection, story, arms, friend, father, place · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (boy, men, friend), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 boy | det |
| 2 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sought | nsubj |
| 3 | sought | seek | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 protection | nmod:poss |
| 5 | protection | protection | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sought | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 told | punct |
| 7 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 sought | conj |
| 8 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 story | nmod:poss |
| 9 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 told | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 arms | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 arms | cc |
| 12 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 15 through | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 through | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 through | cop |
| 15 | through | through | ADV | _ | 21 arms | advcl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 through | punct |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 arms | nsubj |
| 18 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 arms | cop |
| 19 | in | in | ADP | _ | 21 arms | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 arms | det |
| 21 | arms | arm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 told | obl |
| 22 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 one | case |
| 23 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 21 arms | nmod |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 men | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 men | det |
| 26 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 one | nmod |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 proved | punct |
| 28 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 29 proved | nsubj |
| 29 | proved | prove | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 men | acl:relcl |
| 30 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 friend | mark |
| 31 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 33 friend | cop |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 friend | det |
| 33 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 proved | ccomp |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 Wang | punct |
| 35 | Mr. | Mr. | PROPN | Number=Sing | 36 Wang | nmod:desc |
| 36 | Wang | Wang | PROPN | Number=Sing | 33 friend | appos |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 taken | punct |
| 38 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 40 taken | nsubj |
| 39 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 40 taken | aux |
| 40 | taken | take | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 33 friend | acl |
| 41 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 father | nmod:poss |
| 42 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 taken | obj |
| 43 | to | to | ADP | _ | 45 place | case |
| 44 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 place | det |
| 45 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 taken | obl |
| 46 | of | of | ADP | _ | 47 banishment | case |
| 47 | banishment | banishment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 place | nmod |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 sought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seek | past | the boy | men's protection | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent protection=Theme | ||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | the boy not said here | boy's story | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | is | past | boy | through property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | is | past | boy | the arms | of one of the men | tree rules | |||
| 5 | prove | past | the men | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | is a | to-infinitive | the men not said here | the friend | Wang Mr. appos | tree rules | |||
| 7 | take | past · perfect | the friend | boy's father | the place of banishment | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent father=Theme to place=Destination | |||
| 8 | protect | men = man | nom protection «act 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/pg75089/18/69/