Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 80

This was a wise change, and as he sat writing day by day by the roadside, his fame spread all over the city.

Who acts: This, Yang, fame · What happens: be, sit, write, spread · To what, where: wise change, city

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 (This, Yang, fame), 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	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 change	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 change	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 change	det
4	wise	wise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 change	amod
5	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 spread	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 spread	cc
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 sat	mark
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 sat	nsubj
10	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 spread	advcl
11	writing	write	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 sat	xcomp
12	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 writing	obj
13	by	by	ADP	_	14 day	case
14	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 writing	obl
15	by	by	ADP	_	17 roadside	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 roadside	det
17	roadside	roadside	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 writing	obl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 sat	punct
19	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 fame	nmod:poss
20	fame	fame	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 spread	nsubj
21	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 change	conj
22	all	all	ADV	_	25 city	advmod
23	over	over	ADP	_	25 city	case
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 city	det
25	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 spread	obl
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 change	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	This	a wise change				tree rules
2	sit	past	Yang					tree rules
3	write	gerund	Yang not said here			day	by the roadside	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	spread	past	Yang's fame		the city			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over city=Location

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/pg75089/18/80/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 80

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 80