Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 5, sentence 21

When one of the British Legation buildings in Peking was being built, they paid five dollars to have the song sung, and it is always the special for all large Chinese buildings.

Who acts: father, song · What happens: build, pay, have, sing, be · To what, where: one, five dollars, song

This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, song), 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	12 built	advmod
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 built	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 buildings	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 buildings	det
5	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 buildings	amod
6	Legation	Legation	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 buildings	compound
7	buildings	building	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 one	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 Peking	case
9	Peking	Peking	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 buildings	nmod
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 built	aux:pass
11	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 built	aux:pass
12	built	build	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 paid	advcl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 built	punct
14	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 paid	nsubj
15	paid	pay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 dollars	nummod
17	dollars	dollar	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 paid	obj
18	to	to	PART	_	19 have	mark
19	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 paid	advcl
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 song	det
21	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 have	obj
22	sung	sing	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 have	xcomp
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 special	punct
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 special	cc
25	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 special	nsubj
26	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	29 special	cop
27	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	29 special	advmod
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 special	det
29	special	special	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 paid	conj
30	for	for	ADP	_	34 buildings	case
31	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	34 buildings	det
32	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 buildings	amod
33	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 buildings	amod
34	buildings	building	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 special	obl
35	.	.	PUNCT	_	15 paid	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	build	past · passive		one of the British Legation buildings in Peking		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product
2	pay	past	father	five dollars		vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dollar=Asset
3	have	to-infinitive	father not said here	the song		tree rules
4	sing speech: express	participle	the song not said here			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	is	present	song		for all large Chinese buildings; always, special property	tree rules

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/pg75089/21/21/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 5, sentence 21

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 5, sentence 21