Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 78
Many plans were formed, but the soldiers of the clan seemed to possess charmed lives.
Who acts: soldiers · What happens: form, seem, possess, charm · To what, where: Many plans, charmed lives
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 (soldiers), 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 | Many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 plans | amod |
| 2 | plans | plan | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 formed | nsubj |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 formed | aux:pass |
| 4 | formed | form | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 seemed | punct |
| 6 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 12 seemed | cc |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 soldiers | det |
| 8 | soldiers | soldier | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 seemed | nsubj |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 clan | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 clan | det |
| 11 | clan | clan | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 soldiers | nmod |
| 12 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 formed | advcl |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 possess | mark |
| 14 | possess | possess | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 seemed | xcomp |
| 15 | charmed | charm | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 lives | amod |
| 16 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 possess | obj |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 formed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | form | past · passive | Many plans | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 2 | seem | past | the soldiers of the clan | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | |||||
| 3 | possess | to-infinitive | the soldiers of the clan not said here | charmed lives | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot life=Theme | ||||
| 4 | charm | participle | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: 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/pg75089/9/78/