Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 103
Then came the daughter and, kneeling before her mother, she said, “His sins are my sins,” and after that the two boys, who said as they knelt, “Our parents’ sins are ours,” and the four wept with loud and bitter tears.
Who acts: daughter, sins, two boys, four · What happens: come, kneel, say, be, weep · To what, where: sins, ours · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (daughter, sins, two boys, four), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 2 came | advmod |
| 2 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 daughter | det |
| 4 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 came | nsubj |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 kneeling | cc |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 kneeling | punct |
| 7 | kneeling | kneel | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 came | conj |
| 8 | before | before | ADP | _ | 10 mother | case |
| 9 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 mother | nmod:poss |
| 10 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 kneeling | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 said | punct |
| 12 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 said | nsubj |
| 13 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 came | parataxis |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 sins | punct |
| 15 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 sins | punct |
| 16 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 sins | nmod:poss |
| 17 | sins | sin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 sins | nsubj |
| 18 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 20 sins | cop |
| 19 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 sins | nmod:poss |
| 20 | sins | sin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 said | ccomp |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 sins | punct |
| 22 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 said | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 after | cc |
| 24 | after | after | ADP | _ | 2 came | conj |
| 25 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 24 after | fixed |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 boys | det |
| 27 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 28 boys | nummod |
| 28 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 that | obj |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 said | punct |
| 30 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 31 said | nsubj |
| 31 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 boys | acl:relcl |
| 32 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 34 knelt | mark |
| 33 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 knelt | nsubj |
| 34 | knelt | kneel | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 said | ccomp |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 ours | punct |
| 36 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 42 ours | punct |
| 37 | Our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 38 parents | nmod:poss |
| 38 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 sins | nmod:poss |
| 39 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 38 parents | case |
| 40 | sins | sin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 ours | nsubj |
| 41 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 42 ours | cop |
| 42 | ours | our | PRON | Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 34 knelt | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 ours | punct |
| 44 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 34 knelt | punct |
| 45 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 48 wept | cc |
| 46 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 47 four | det |
| 47 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 48 wept | nsubj |
| 48 | wept | weep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 knelt | conj |
| 49 | with | with | ADP | _ | 53 tears | case |
| 50 | loud | loud | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 53 tears | amod |
| 51 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 52 bitter | cc |
| 52 | bitter | bitter | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 50 loud | conj |
| 53 | tears | tear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 48 wept | obl |
| 54 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 came | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | the daughter | then | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | kneel | gerund | the daughter not said here | before daughter's mother | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before mother=Location | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | past | daughter | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is a in a quote | present | Son's sins | my sins | my nmod:poss | tree rules | |||
| 5 | say speech: assert | past | the two boys | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | kneel | past | sins = sin | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | is a in a quote | present | Our parents's sins | ours | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | weep | past | the four | with loud tears | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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/pg75089/19/103/