---
title: Why do I sit every night, hour after hour, with my tongue pressed ag… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do I sit every night, hour after hour, with my tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth, my hands and feet crossed, trying not to be conscious of any bodily sensation. Who acts: I, hands. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Tea-house Story, with 
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 67

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Why do I sit every night, hour after hour, with my tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth, my hands and feet crossed, trying not to be conscious of any bodily sensation.

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**Who acts:** I, hands · **What happens:** sit, press, cross, try, not be · **To what, where:** tongue

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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 (I, hands), 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:pg75089:10:67
# text = Why do I sit every night, hour after hour, with my tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth, my hands and feet crossed, trying not to be conscious of any bodily sensation.
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
9	after	after	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
15	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	against	against	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
27	crossed	cross	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
33	conscious	conscious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	37	det	_	_
36	bodily	bodily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	sensation	sensation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  | hour; night | with my tongue | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **press** | participle |  | my tongue *not said here* |  |  |  | against the roof of my mouth | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent against roof=Theme |
| 3 | **cross** | participle | my hands and feet |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of any bodily sensation; conscious *property* | 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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