---
title: His wife coming in at the moment, he called to her “to look at the m… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife coming in at the moment, he called to her “to look at the magic bench.” Who acts: wife. 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 87

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His wife coming in at the moment, he called to her “to look at the magic bench.”

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**Who acts:** wife · **What happens:** come in, call, look · **To what, where:** sigh · **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 (wife), 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:pg75089:10:87
# text = His wife coming in at the moment, he called to her “to look at the magic bench.”
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
4	in	in	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come in** | gerund | Buddha's wife *not said here* |  |  |  | moment |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **call** *speech: assert* | past | Buddha's wife |  | sigh |  |  | Buddha *nsubj* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 3 | **look** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Buddha's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the magic bench | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at bench=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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