---
title: Can you eat [1] all this bitterness, even to becoming a servant?” — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Can you eat [1] all this bitterness, even to becoming a servant?” 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.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 137

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Can you eat \[1\] all this bitterness, even to becoming a servant?”

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** eat, become · **To what, where:** bitterness, servant

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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.

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

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:10:137
# text = Can you eat [1] all this bitterness, even to becoming a servant?”
1	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	1	1	NUM	LS	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	5	punct	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	bitterness	bitterness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	even	even	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | can | you | all bitterness |  |  |  | 1 *flat* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **become** | gerund | you *not said here* | a servant |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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