---
title: Now, Nien Chi, the steward, was as bold and bad a man as his master,… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, Nien Chi, the steward, was as bold and bad a man as his master, shrewd and cunning withal. Who acts: Nien. 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 7

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Now, Nien Chi, the steward, was as bold and bad a man as his master, shrewd and cunning withal.

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**Who acts:** Nien · **What happens:** be

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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 (Nien), 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:pg75089:10:7
# text = Now, Nien Chi, the steward, was as bold and bad a man as his master, shrewd and cunning withal.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	Nien	Nien	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	Chi	Chi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	steward	steward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	bold	bold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	shrewd	shrewd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	withal	withal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Nien |  |  |  | now | a man as Nien's master *conj*; bold *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | Nien *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | Nien *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | 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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