---
title: Is it not because of the long hours of kneeling on the cold brick fl… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Is it not because of the long hours of kneeling on the cold brick floor praying to the Goddess of Mercy? Who acts: cripple, cold brick floor. 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 claus
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Tea-house Story, sentence 71

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Is it not because of the long hours of kneeling on the cold brick floor praying to the Goddess of Mercy?

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**Who acts:** cripple, cold brick floor · **What happens:** not be, pray

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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 (cripple, cold brick floor), 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:pg75089:10:71
# text = Is it not because of the long hours of kneeling on the cold brick floor praying to the Goddess of Mercy?
1	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
4	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	8	case	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	fixed	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	kneeling	kneeling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	brick	brick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
16	praying	pray	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Goddess	Goddess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Mercy	Mercy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | cripple |  |  |  | because the long hours | of kneeling on the cold brick floor | tree rules |
| 2 | **pray** | gerund | the cold brick floor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the Goddess of Mercy | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

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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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