Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Orient, sentence 39
Great was his surprise that his little daughter had saved him, and it was with difficulty they convinced him of the truth of her story.
Who acts: little daughter, surprise, daughters · What happens: be, save, convince · To what, where: Great surprise, father
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 (little daughter, surprise, daughters), 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 | Great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 surprise | amod |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 surprise | cop |
| 3 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 4 surprise | nmod:poss |
| 4 | surprise | surprise | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 saved | mark |
| 6 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 daughter | nmod:poss |
| 7 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 daughter | amod |
| 8 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 saved | nsubj |
| 9 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 saved | aux |
| 10 | saved | save | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 surprise | acl:relcl |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 saved | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 difficulty | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 difficulty | cc |
| 14 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 difficulty | nsubj |
| 15 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 difficulty | cop |
| 16 | with | with | ADP | _ | 17 difficulty | case |
| 17 | difficulty | difficulty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 surprise | appos |
| 18 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 convinced | nsubj |
| 19 | convinced | convince | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 difficulty | acl:relcl |
| 20 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 convinced | obj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 truth | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 truth | det |
| 23 | truth | truth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 convinced | obl |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 story | case |
| 25 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 story | nmod:poss |
| 26 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 truth | nmod |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 surprise | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | father's Great surprise | father nmod:poss | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | save | past · perfect | father's little daughter | father | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 3 | is | past | surprise | with difficulty | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | convince | past | daughters = daughter | father | of the truth of Glory's story | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
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/pg75089/7/39/