---
title: “And why say you so?” the Emperor asked. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “And why say you so?” the Emperor asked. Who acts: Emperor. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Jade Treasure, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Jade Treasure, sentence 21

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“And why say you so?” the Emperor asked.

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**Who acts:** Emperor · **What happens:** say, ask · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Jade Treasure. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Emperor), 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:pg75089:11:21
# text = “And why say you so?” the Emperor asked.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent you=Topic |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Emperor |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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