Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 21
The servants all urged her and plead with her; showed her the boxes of garments, the silver sent for the journey; praised the beautiful home waiting for her, told of the kind old people, and most charming younger sister.
Who acts: servants, silver, beautiful home, most · What happens: urge, plead, show, send, praise, wait · To what, where: Yü, boxes, beautiful home, younger sister · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (servants, silver, beautiful home, most), 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 servants | det |
| 2 | servants | servant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 urged | nsubj |
| 3 | all | all | ADV | _ | 4 urged | advmod |
| 4 | urged | urge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 urged | iobj |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 plead | cc |
| 7 | plead | plead | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 urged | conj |
| 8 | with | with | ADP | _ | 9 her | case |
| 9 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 plead | obl |
| 10 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 11 showed | punct |
| 11 | showed | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 urged | conj |
| 12 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 showed | iobj |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 boxes | det |
| 14 | boxes | box | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 showed | obj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 garments | case |
| 16 | garments | garment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 boxes | nmod |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 sent | punct |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 silver | det |
| 19 | silver | silver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 sent | nsubj |
| 20 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 showed | conj |
| 21 | for | for | ADP | _ | 23 journey | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 journey | det |
| 23 | journey | journey | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 sent | obl |
| 24 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 25 praised | punct |
| 25 | praised | praise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 urged | conj |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 home | det |
| 27 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 home | amod |
| 28 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 praised | obj |
| 29 | waiting | wait | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 28 home | acl |
| 30 | for | for | ADP | _ | 31 her | case |
| 31 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 waiting | obl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 told | punct |
| 33 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 praised | parataxis |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 people | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 people | det |
| 36 | kind | kind | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 people | amod |
| 37 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 people | amod |
| 38 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 told | obl |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 charming | punct |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 charming | cc |
| 41 | most | most | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 42 charming | nsubj |
| 42 | charming | charm | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 33 told | advcl |
| 43 | younger | young | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 44 sister | amod |
| 44 | sister | sister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 charming | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 urged | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | urge | past | the servants | Yü | all property | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient | |||
| 2 | plead speech: request | present | the servants not said here | with Yü | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | show | past | the servants not said here | the boxes of garments | Yü | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient box=Topic | |||
| 4 | send | past | the silver | for the journey | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | praise | past | the servants not said here | the beautiful home | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent home=Theme | ||||
| 6 | wait | gerund | the beautiful home not said here | for Yü | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | tell speech: assert | past | of the kind old people | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 8 | charm | gerund | most | younger sister | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sister=Experiencer |
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/pg75089/20/21/