Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 92

The boys and the mother sprang forward and caught him and placed him in a chair, a son standing at either side of the chair, the sweet mother at the back.

Who acts: boys, son · What happens: spring, catch, place, stand · To what, where: boy, chair, side

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 (boys, son), 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 boys	det
2	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 sprang	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 mother	cc
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 mother	det
5	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 boys	conj
6	sprang	spring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	forward	forward	ADV	_	6 sprang	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 caught	cc
9	caught	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 sprang	conj
10	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 caught	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 placed	cc
12	placed	place	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 sprang	conj
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 placed	obj
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 chair	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 chair	det
16	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 placed	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 son	punct
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 son	det
19	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 chair	conj
20	standing	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	19 son	acl
21	at	at	ADP	_	23 side	case
22	either	either	DET	PronType=Ind	23 side	det
23	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 standing	obl
24	of	of	ADP	_	26 chair	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 chair	det
26	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 side	nmod
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 mother	punct
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 mother	det
29	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 mother	amod
30	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 chair	conj
31	at	at	ADP	_	33 back	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 back	det
33	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 mother	nmod
34	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 sprang	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	spring	past	the boys and the mother			forward property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	catch	past	the boys and the mother not said here	boy			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
3	place	past	the boys and the mother not said here	boy	a chair and a son and the sweet mother at the back		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme in chair=Destination
4	stand	gerund	a son not said here		either side of the chair		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at side=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/pg75089/19/92/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 92

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 92