Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 55

It is said that he knew every soldier, and could tell at a glance how many there were in a company passing before him and who were absent from the ranks.

Who acts: Han, many, company · What happens: say, know, tell, be, pass · To what, where: country, soldier, glance, company, ranks · 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 (Han, many, company), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 said	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 said	aux:pass
3	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 knew	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 knew	nsubj
6	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 said	ccomp
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 soldier	det
8	soldier	soldier	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 knew	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 tell	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 tell	cc
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 tell	aux
12	tell	tell	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 said	parataxis
13	at	at	ADP	_	15 glance	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 glance	det
15	glance	glance	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 tell	obl
16	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	17 many	advmod
17	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 were	nsubj
18	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	19 were	expl
19	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 tell	ccomp
20	in	in	ADP	_	22 company	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 company	det
22	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 were	obl
23	passing	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	22 company	acl
24	before	before	ADP	_	25 him	case
25	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 passing	obl
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 absent	cc
27	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	29 absent	nsubj
28	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 absent	cop
29	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 passing	conj
30	from	from	ADP	_	32 ranks	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 ranks	det
32	ranks	rank	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 absent	obl
33	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present · passive		country				tree rules
2	know	past	Han	every soldier				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer soldier=Stimulus
3	tell speech: assert	could			a glance			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	be	past	many		a company; there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in company=Location
5	pass	gerund	a company not said here			before Han		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme before he=Location
6	is	past			the ranks		who nsubj; absent 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/pg75089/9/55/

🌲 Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 55

The tree

Pragmatics

Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 55