---
title: Far in the distance on a high mountain-top he saw what appeared to b… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Far in the distance on a high mountain-top he saw what appeared to be a man. Who acts: teacher. 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 99

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Far in the distance on a high mountain-top he saw what appeared to be a man.

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**Who acts:** teacher · **What happens:** see, appear, be · **To what, where:** high mountain top, man · **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 (teacher), 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:pg75089:10:99
# text = Far in the distance on a high mountain-top he saw what appeared to be a man.
1	Far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
8	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
14	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | teacher | a high mountain top *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **appear** | past |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a man |  |  |  |  | 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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