Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 100
He held out his document and, at a bow from the Emperor, a eunuch came forward, took it, and placed it on the table by the Emperor’s side.
Who acts: Ting, bow · What happens: hold out, come forward, take, place, document · To what, where: document, table
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ting, bow), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 held | nsubj |
| 2 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | out | out | ADP | _ | 2 held | compound:prt |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 document | nmod:poss |
| 5 | document | document | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 held | obj |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 came | cc |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 bow | punct |
| 8 | at | at | ADP | _ | 10 bow | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 bow | det |
| 10 | bow | bow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 came | nsubj |
| 11 | from | from | ADP | _ | 13 Emperor | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 Emperor | det |
| 13 | Emperor | Emperor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 bow | nmod |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 eunuch | punct |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 eunuch | det |
| 16 | eunuch | eunuch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 Emperor | appos |
| 17 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 held | conj |
| 18 | forward | forward | ADV | _ | 17 came | advmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 took | punct |
| 20 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 came | conj |
| 21 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 took | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 placed | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 placed | cc |
| 24 | placed | place | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 held | conj |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 placed | obj |
| 26 | on | on | ADP | _ | 28 table | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 table | det |
| 28 | table | table | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 placed | obl |
| 29 | by | by | ADP | _ | 33 side | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 Emperor | det |
| 31 | Emperor | Emperor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 33 side | nmod:poss |
| 32 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 31 Emperor | case |
| 33 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 placed | obl |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 held | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hold out | past | Ting | Ting's document | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent document=Theme | ||||
| 2 | come forward | past | a bow from the Emperor | forward property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | take | past | a bow from the Emperor not said here | document | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 4 | place | past | Ting not said here | document | the table | by the Emperor's side | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on table=Destination | ||
| 5 | document | Ting | nom document «communication transitive»: poss=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/pg75089/20/100/