Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 42

She promised them she would go when she had need of money and get from the store for her use, and with great reluctance the servants, again prostrating themselves, left her; they returned to the south and she entered her poor little room.

Who acts: latter, servants, changes · What happens: promise, go, have, get, prostrate, leave · To what, where: changes, need, store, latter, poor little room, money · 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 (latter, servants, changes), 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	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 promised	nsubj
2	promised	promise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 promised	obj
4	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 go	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 go	aux
6	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 promised	ccomp
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 had	advmod
8	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 had	nsubj
9	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 go	advcl
10	need	need	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 had	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 money	case
12	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 need	nmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 get	cc
14	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 go	conj
15	from	from	ADP	_	17 store	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 store	det
17	store	store	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 get	obl
18	for	for	ADP	_	20 use	case
19	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 use	nmod:poss
20	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 store	nmod
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 left	punct
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	33 left	cc
23	with	with	ADP	_	25 reluctance	case
24	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 reluctance	amod
25	reluctance	reluctance	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 left	obl
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 servants	det
27	servants	servant	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 reluctance	conj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 prostrating	punct
29	again	again	ADV	_	30 prostrating	advmod
30	prostrating	prostrate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	27 servants	acl
31	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	30 prostrating	obj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 reluctance	punct
33	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 promised	conj
34	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 left	obj
35	;	;	PUNCT	_	37 returned	punct
36	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 returned	nsubj
37	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 promised	parataxis
38	to	to	ADP	_	40 south	case
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 south	det
40	south	south	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 returned	obl
41	and	and	CCONJ	_	43 entered	cc
42	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 entered	nsubj
43	entered	enter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 returned	conj
44	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 room	nmod:poss
45	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 room	amod
46	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 room	amod
47	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 entered	obj
48	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 promised	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	promise speech: promise	past	latter		changes = change				vn promise-37.13 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
2	go	would	latter						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	have	past	latter	need of money					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent need=Patient
4	get	infinitive	latter not said here			the store for latter's use			vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme from store=Destination
5	prostrate	gerund	the servants not said here	changes = change			again		tree rules
6	leave	past	latter not said here		latter			with great reluctance and the servants	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent she=Recipient with reluctance=Theme
7	return	past	changes = change					to the south result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to south=Result
8	enter	past	latter	latter's poor little room					vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme room=Destination
9	need			money					nom need «state transitive»: of=patient
10	use		latter						nom use «act 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/pg75089/20/42/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 42

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 42