Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Miss Russell’s Funeral Service, sentence 18
We had thought that few American or English friends could be present at this time of year, when the foreign residents are away from the city, but we were mistaken.
Who acts: We, few American friends, foreign residents · What happens: think, be · To what, where: city · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Miss Russell’s Funeral Service. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, few American friends, foreign residents), 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 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 3 thought | nsubj |
| 2 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 thought | aux |
| 3 | thought | think | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 present | mark |
| 5 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 friends | amod |
| 6 | American | American | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 friends | amod |
| 7 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 8 English | cc |
| 8 | English | English | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 American | conj |
| 9 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 present | nsubj |
| 10 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 present | aux |
| 11 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 12 present | cop |
| 12 | present | present | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 thought | ccomp |
| 13 | at | at | ADP | _ | 15 time | case |
| 14 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 15 time | det |
| 15 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 present | obl |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 year | case |
| 17 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 time | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 away | punct |
| 19 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 24 away | mark |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 residents | det |
| 21 | foreign | foreign | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 residents | amod |
| 22 | residents | resident | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 away | nsubj |
| 23 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 24 away | cop |
| 24 | away | away | ADV | _ | 3 thought | advmod |
| 25 | from | from | ADP | _ | 27 city | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 city | det |
| 27 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 away | obl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 mistaken | punct |
| 29 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 32 mistaken | cc |
| 30 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 32 mistaken | nsubj |
| 31 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 mistaken | cop |
| 32 | mistaken | mistaken | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 thought | conj |
| 33 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | past · perfect | We | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is | could | few American friends | time | present property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | is | present | the foreign residents | the city | away property | tree rules | |||
| 4 | is | past | we | mistaken 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/pg75089/5/18/