Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 25
When Han Hsin was presented to this Prince by his teachers as a wise man and one who could help him make his country strong, he laughed and said, “What can such a boy do?
Who acts: teachers, wise man, prince, boy · What happens: present, help, make, laugh, say, do · To what, where: Han, Prince, country · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (teachers, wise man, prince, boy), 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 | SCONJ | _ | 5 presented | mark |
| 2 | Han | Han | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 presented | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | Hsin | Hsin | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Han | flat |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 presented | aux:pass |
| 5 | presented | present | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 28 laughed | advcl |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 8 Prince | case |
| 7 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 8 Prince | det |
| 8 | Prince | Prince | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 presented | obl |
| 9 | by | by | ADP | _ | 11 teachers | case |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 teachers | nmod:poss |
| 11 | teachers | teacher | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 presented | obl |
| 12 | as | as | ADP | _ | 15 man | case |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 man | det |
| 14 | wise | wise | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 man | amod |
| 15 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 presented | obl |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 one | cc |
| 17 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 15 man | conj |
| 18 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 20 help | nsubj |
| 19 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 help | aux |
| 20 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 man | acl:relcl |
| 21 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 help | obj |
| 22 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 help | xcomp |
| 23 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 country | nmod:poss |
| 24 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 make | obj |
| 25 | strong | strong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 make | xcomp |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 presented | punct |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 laughed | nsubj |
| 28 | laughed | laugh | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 said | cc |
| 30 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 laughed | conj |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 do | punct |
| 32 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 38 do | punct |
| 33 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 38 do | obj |
| 34 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 38 do | aux |
| 35 | such | such | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 boy | det:predet |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 boy | det |
| 37 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 do | nsubj |
| 38 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 said | ccomp |
| 39 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 28 laughed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | present | past · passive | prince's teachers | Han | this Prince | as a wise man | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Theme to prince=Recipient | ||
| 2 | help | could | a wise man | prince | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary clause=Theme | ||||
| 3 | make | infinitive | prince not said here | prince's country | strong property | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset country=Product | |||
| 4 | laugh | past | prince | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | say speech: ask | past | prince not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | do in a quote | can | such boy | What obj | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
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.
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