---
title: “But,” urged the wise man, “if you desire to attain the true life yo… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “But,” urged the wise man, “if you desire to attain the true life you must be ready to save, not to destroy men. Who acts: you. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Tea-house Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/10/124/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [A Chinese Tea-house Story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/10/) / 124

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“But,” urged the wise man, “if you desire to attain the true life you must be ready to save, not to destroy men.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** urge, desire, attain, be, save, not destroy · **To what, where:** wise man, true life, men

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Tea-house Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:10:124
# text = “But,” urged the wise man, “if you desire to attain the true life you must be ready to save, not to destroy men.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	urged	urge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	desire	desire	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	attain	attain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
22	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
29	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **urge** | past |  |  | the wise man |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Recipient |
| 2 | **desire** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **attain** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the true life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | must | you |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **save** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **destroy** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | men |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/10/123/)
- next →: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/10/125/)
- ↑ back to [A Chinese Tea-house Story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/10/)