---
title: He ordered dinner, and as he sat eating he saw a new bench drop down… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He ordered dinner, and as he sat eating he saw a new bench drop down into his court. Who acts: Buddha, new bench. 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 83

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He ordered dinner, and as he sat eating he saw a new bench drop down into his court.

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**Who acts:** Buddha, new bench · **What happens:** order, sit, eat, see, drop down · **To what, where:** dinner, court · **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 (Buddha, new bench), 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:pg75089:10:83
# text = He ordered dinner, and as he sat eating he saw a new bench drop down into his court.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	drop	drop	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
16	down	down	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **order** | past | Buddha | dinner |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past | Buddha |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **eat** | gerund | Buddha *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | past | Buddha |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **drop down** | present | a new bench |  |  | Buddha's court |  | down *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into court=Trajectory |

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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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