---
title: A few words about her work in the past explained the sadness of the… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: A few words about her work in the past explained the sadness of the brown eyes which had already seen many life tragedies in her five years of city mission work, but their merry sparkle when she entered into the happy flow of talk about her showed that her sympathies were as full and rich for joy as
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Opening, sentence 12

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A few words about her work in the past explained the sadness of the brown eyes which had already seen many life tragedies in her five years of city mission work, but their merry sparkle when she entered into the happy flow of talk about her showed that her sympathies were as full and rich for joy as for sorrow.

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**Who acts:** few words, merry sparkle, sympathies, woman, talk · **What happens:** explain, see, enter, show, be, work · **To what, where:** sadness, brown eyes, happy flow, past · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few words, merry sparkle, sympathies, woman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:1:12
# text = A few words about her work in the past explained the sadness of the brown eyes which had already seen many life tragedies in her five years of city mission work, but their merry sparkle when she entered into the happy flow of talk about her showed that her sympathies were as full and rich for joy as for sorrow.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sadness	sadness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	already	already	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
21	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	tragedies	tragedy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
30	mission	mission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	sparkle	sparkle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
37	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	39	advmod	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
40	into	into	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	flow	flow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	_
46	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
47	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	advcl	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
50	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	sympathies	sympathy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	nsubj	_	_
52	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	cop	_	_
53	as	as	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	ccomp	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
56	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	conj	_	_
57	for	for	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	_
59	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	61	case	_	_
60	for	for	ADP	IN	_	59	fixed	_	_
61	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | a few words about woman's work in the past | the sadness of the brown eyes |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sadness=Topic |
| 2 | **see** | past · perfect · passive |  | the brown eyes |  |  |  | many life tragedies *obj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **enter** | past | words's merry sparkle |  |  | the happy flow of talk |  | sparkle *nsubj* | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into flow=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **show** | past | words's merry sparkle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | woman *nmod:poss* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | woman's sympathies |  |  |  |  | for joy as sorrow; full *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** |  | woman's sympathies *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **work** |  | woman |  |  | the past |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent in=place |
| 8 | **flow** |  | talk |  |  |  |  |  | nom flow «event intransitive»: of=agent |

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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.

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**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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