---
title: At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the mountain peopl… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the mountain people to help those in distress, to cheer the sad and discouraged, and found him always ready to serve as a messenger of the gods. Who acts: Worthies, sage. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chin
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 152

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At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the mountain people to help those in distress, to cheer the sad and discouraged, and found him always ready to serve as a messenger of the gods.

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**Who acts:** Worthies, sage · **What happens:** send, help, cheer, find, serve · **To what, where:** sage, close, those, distress, sad

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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 (Worthies, sage), 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:pg75089:10:152
# text = At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the mountain people to help those in distress, to cheer the sad and discouraged, and found him always ready to serve as a messenger of the gods.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	close	close	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	novitiate	novitiate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	among	among	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	obj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	cheer	cheer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	discouraged	discouraged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	31	advmod	_	_
31	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | Worthies *= worthy* | sage |  | the close of sage's novitiate |  | among the mountain people | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **help** | to-infinitive | Worthies *= worthy* *not said here* | those |  | distress |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **cheer** | to-infinitive | Worthies *= worthy* *not said here* | the sad |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sad=Experiencer |
| 4 | **find** | past | Worthies *= worthy* *not said here* | sage |  |  |  | ready *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 5 | **serve** | to-infinitive | sage *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a messenger of the gods | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as messenger=Attribute |

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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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