Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 43
Years came and went; to all the letters Lady Yü returned an answer that she was in need of nothing and would not leave her native city.
Who acts: Years, Lady · What happens: come, go, return, be, not leave · To what, where: answer, letters, need, native city
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 (Years, Lady), 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 | Years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 came | nsubj |
| 2 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 went | cc |
| 4 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 came | conj |
| 5 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 12 returned | punct |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 9 letters | case |
| 7 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 9 letters | det:predet |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 letters | det |
| 9 | letters | letter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 returned | obl |
| 10 | Lady | Lady | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 returned | nsubj |
| 11 | Yü | Yü | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 Lady | flat |
| 12 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 came | parataxis |
| 13 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 answer | det |
| 14 | answer | answer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 returned | obj |
| 15 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 19 need | mark |
| 16 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 need | nsubj |
| 17 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 need | cop |
| 18 | in | in | ADP | _ | 19 need | case |
| 19 | need | need | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 returned | advcl |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 nothing | case |
| 21 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 19 need | nmod |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 leave | cc |
| 23 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 leave | aux |
| 24 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 25 leave | advmod |
| 25 | leave | leave | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 returned | conj |
| 26 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 city | nmod:poss |
| 27 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 city | amod |
| 28 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 leave | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 came | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | Years | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | go | past | Years not said here | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | return | past | Lady | a answer | all letters | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent answer=Theme to letter=Destination | |||
| 4 | is | past | Lady | need | of nothing | tree rules | |||
| 5 | not leave | would | Lady not said here | Lady's native city | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent city=Theme |
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/pg75089/20/43/