Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 139

As they returned to the gate the neighbours said, “Although she is so poor, she is most particular as to observing good customs.”

Who acts: neighbours, Yü · What happens: return, say, be, observe · To what, where: good customs · 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 (neighbours, Yü), 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	As	as	SCONJ	_	3 returned	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 returned	nsubj
3	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 said	advcl
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 gate	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 gate	det
6	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 neighbours	det
8	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 said	nsubj
9	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 particular	punct
11	“	"	PUNCT	_	21 particular	punct
12	Although	although	SCONJ	_	16 poor	mark
13	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 poor	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 poor	cop
15	so	so	ADV	_	16 poor	advmod
16	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 particular	advcl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 poor	punct
18	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 particular	nsubj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 particular	cop
20	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	21 particular	advmod
21	particular	particular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 said	ccomp
22	as	as	SCONJ	_	24 observing	mark
23	to	to	ADP	_	22 as	fixed
24	observing	observe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	21 particular	advcl
25	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 customs	amod
26	customs	custom	NOUN	Number=Plur	24 observing	obj
27	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 said	punct
28	”	"	PUNCT	_	9 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	return	past	neighbours = neighbour		to the gate result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to gate=Result
2	say speech: assert	past	the neighbours			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	is in a quote	present	Yü		poor property	tree rules
4	is in a quote	present	Yü		particular property	tree rules
5	observe in a quote	gerund	Yü not said here	good customs		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent custom=Topic

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/pg75089/19/139/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 139

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 139