---
title: He asked, “Who is the prisoner?” and was told, “An official by the n… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He asked, “Who is the prisoner?” and was told, “An official by the name of Pai.” Who acts: crowd. 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 38

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He asked, “Who is the prisoner?” and was told, “An official by the name of Pai.”

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**Who acts:** crowd · **What happens:** ask, be, tell, name · **To what, where:** prisoner, Pai · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (crowd), 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:pg75089:10:38
# text = He asked, “Who is the prisoner?” and was told, “An official by the name of Pai.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	official	official	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Pai	Pai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | crowd |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the prisoner |  |  |  | Who *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive | crowd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **name** *in a quote* |  |  | Pai |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=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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