Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, sentence 1
The great Chinese sage, Confucius, had a son-in-law, Kung Yeh Chang, who understood better than any one before or since his day the habits of birds.
Who acts: great Chinese sage, law · What happens: have, understand · To what, where: law
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great Chinese sage, law), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 sage | det |
| 2 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 sage | amod |
| 3 | Chinese | Chinese | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 sage | amod |
| 4 | sage | sage | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 had | nsubj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 Confucius | punct |
| 6 | Confucius | Confucius | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 sage | appos |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 sage | punct |
| 8 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 law | det |
| 10 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 law | nsubj |
| 11 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 14 law | punct |
| 12 | in | in | ADP | _ | 14 law | case |
| 13 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 12 in | punct |
| 14 | law | law | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 had | obj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 Yeh | punct |
| 16 | Kung | Kung | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 Yeh | compound |
| 17 | Yeh | Yeh | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 law | appos |
| 18 | Chang | Chang | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 Yeh | flat |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 understood | punct |
| 20 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 21 understood | nsubj |
| 21 | understood | understand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 law | conj |
| 22 | better | well | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 21 understood | advmod |
| 23 | than | than | ADP | _ | 25 one | case |
| 24 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 25 one | det |
| 25 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 better | obl |
| 26 | before | before | ADP | _ | 30 day | case |
| 27 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 30 day | cc |
| 28 | since | since | ADP | _ | 30 day | case |
| 29 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 day | nmod:poss |
| 30 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 one | nmod |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 habits | det |
| 32 | habits | habit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 day | obj |
| 33 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 birds | case |
| 34 | birds | bird | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 habits | nmod |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | past | the great Chinese sage | a law son | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent law=Patient | ||||
| 2 | understand | past | a law son | well property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg75089/8/1/