---
title: “Why not return at once, care for our property, and live in quiet?”… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why not return at once, care for our property, and live in quiet?” asked his wife. Who acts: wife. 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 48

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“Why not return at once, care for our property, and live in quiet?” asked his wife.

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**Who acts:** wife · **What happens:** not return, live, ask · **To what, where:** care, quiet · **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 (wife), 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:pg75089:10:48
# text = “Why not return at once, care for our property, and live in quiet?” asked his wife.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	property	property	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **return** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | care for our property |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **live** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  | quiet |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in quiet=Location |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | evil's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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