Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Orient, sentence 1
Two thousand years ago, in the time of the Han dynasty, there lived in China a man by the name of Chun Yü I. He was a small official and, because of some offence by which he had angered his superior, he was sentenced to have his feet cut off.
Who acts: I., feet · What happens: live, be, anger, sentence, have, cut off · To what, where: man, China, small official, offence, I., feet
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Orient. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I., feet), 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 | Two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 thousand | compound |
| 2 | thousand | thousand | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 3 years | nummod |
| 3 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 15 lived | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 ago | punct |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 time | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 time | det |
| 8 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 lived | obl |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 dynasty | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 dynasty | det |
| 11 | Han | Han | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 dynasty | compound |
| 12 | dynasty | dynasty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 time | nmod |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 time | punct |
| 14 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 15 lived | expl |
| 15 | lived | live | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 16 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 China | case |
| 17 | China | China | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 lived | obl |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 man | det |
| 19 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 lived | obl |
| 20 | by | by | ADP | _ | 22 name | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 name | det |
| 22 | name | name | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 lived | obl |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 I. | case |
| 24 | Chun | Chun | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 I. | compound |
| 25 | Yü | Yü | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 I. | compound |
| 26 | I. | I. | PROPN | Number=Sing | 22 name | nmod |
| 27 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 official | nsubj |
| 28 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 official | cop |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 31 official | det |
| 30 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 official | amod |
| 31 | official | official | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 lived | parataxis |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 48 sentenced | cc |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 and | punct |
| 34 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 42 angered | mark |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 because | fixed |
| 36 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 offence | det |
| 37 | offence | offence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 angered | nsubj:pass |
| 38 | by | by | ADP | _ | 39 which | case |
| 39 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 42 angered | obl |
| 40 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 angered | nsubj |
| 41 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 angered | aux |
| 42 | angered | anger | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 48 sentenced | advcl |
| 43 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 44 superior | nmod:poss |
| 44 | superior | superior | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 angered | conj |
| 45 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 angered | punct |
| 46 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 sentenced | nsubj |
| 47 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 48 sentenced | aux:pass |
| 48 | sentenced | sentence | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 31 official | conj |
| 49 | to | to | PART | _ | 50 have | mark |
| 50 | have | have | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 48 sentenced | xcomp |
| 51 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 52 feet | nmod:poss |
| 52 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 50 have | obj |
| 53 | cut | cut | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 50 have | xcomp |
| 54 | off | off | ADP | _ | 53 cut | compound:prt |
| 55 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 lived | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | live | past | a man | China; there | time | by the name of Chun Yü I.; ago property | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in china=Location | ||
| 2 | is a | past | I. | a small official | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | anger | past · perfect · passive | some offence | which obl; I. nsubj | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer | ||||
| 4 | sentence | past · passive | I. | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | have | to-infinitive | I.'s feet | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | cut off | participle | I.'s feet not said here | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | |||||
| 7 | name | Chun Yü I. | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg75089/7/1/