---
title: Sadly musing, he continued, “I had hoped to become an official, serv… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Sadly musing, he continued, “I had hoped to become an official, serve my country, and receive honour, but I see the life of a minister is a most dangerous one. Who acts: Sadly musing, scholar, life. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Tea-house Story, w
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 43

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Sadly musing, he continued, “I had hoped to become an official, serve my country, and receive honour, but I see the life of a minister is a most dangerous one.

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**Who acts:** Sadly musing, scholar, life · **What happens:** continue, hope, become, serve, receive, see · **To what, where:** official, country, honour, dangerous one · **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 (Sadly musing, scholar, life), 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:pg75089:10:43
# text = Sadly musing, he continued, “I had hoped to become an official, serve my country, and receive honour, but I see the life of a minister is a most dangerous one.
1	Sadly	sadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	musing	musing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	hoped	hope	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	official	official	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	receive	receive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
22	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
34	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	35	advmod	_	_
35	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** | past | Sadly musing |  |  |  |  | musing *nsubj* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **hope** *in a quote* | past · perfect | scholar |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **become** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | scholar *not said here* | a official |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **serve** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | my country |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent country=Attribute |
| 5 | **receive** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | honour |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent honour=Theme |
| 6 | **see** *in a quote* | present | scholar |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the life of a minister | a dangerous one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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