Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 81
One day a very rich old gentleman, who had been observing him quietly for many days, drew near and entered into conversation.
Who acts: rich old gentleman · What happens: observe, draw, enter · To what, where: Yang, conversation, rich old gentleman
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 (rich old gentleman), 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 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 day | nummod |
| 2 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 gentleman | nsubj |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 gentleman | det |
| 4 | very | very | ADV | _ | 5 rich | advmod |
| 5 | rich | rich | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 gentleman | amod |
| 6 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 gentleman | amod |
| 7 | gentleman | gentleman | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 observing | punct |
| 9 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 observing | nsubj |
| 10 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 observing | aux |
| 11 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 12 observing | aux |
| 12 | observing | observe | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 gentleman | acl |
| 13 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 observing | obj |
| 14 | quietly | quietly | ADV | _ | 12 observing | advmod |
| 15 | for | for | ADP | _ | 17 days | case |
| 16 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 days | amod |
| 17 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 observing | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 drew | punct |
| 19 | drew | draw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 gentleman | parataxis |
| 20 | near | near | ADV | _ | 19 drew | advmod |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 entered | cc |
| 22 | entered | enter | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 drew | conj |
| 23 | into | into | ADP | _ | 24 conversation | case |
| 24 | conversation | conversation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 entered | obl |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 gentleman | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | observe | past · perfect · progressive | a rich old gentleman One day | Yang | day | quietly property | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent he=Topic | ||
| 2 | draw | past | near property | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | enter | past | conversation | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into conversation=Initial_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/pg75089/18/81/