---
title: So he said to the bench, “If you are to help me leave the earth move… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: So he said to the bench, “If you are to help me leave the earth move up and down three times.” Who acts: Buddha, 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 85

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So he said to the bench, “If you are to help me leave the earth move up and down three times.”

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**Who acts:** Buddha, bench · **What happens:** say, be, help, leave, move up · **To what, where:** bench, Buddha, earth · **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, 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:pg75089:10:85
# text = So he said to the bench, “If you are to help me leave the earth move up and down three times.”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	move	move	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
19	up	up	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	down	down	ADV	RB	_	19	conj	_	_
22	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Buddha |  | the bench |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to bench=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **does** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | the bench *= bench* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **help** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the bench *= bench* *not said here* | Buddha |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 4 | **leave** *in a quote* | infinitive | Buddha *not said here* | the earth |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent earth=Theme |
| 5 | **move up** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

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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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