---
title: At that time there was constant conflict between the many petty stat… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At that time there was constant conflict between the many petty states, or kingdoms, each striving for the first place. Who acts: each. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Jade Treasure, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/11/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [The Jade Treasure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/11/) / 3

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Jade Treasure, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At that time there was constant conflict between the many petty states, or kingdoms, each striving for the first place.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** each · **What happens:** be, strive · **To what, where:** constant conflict

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (each), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:11:3
# text = At that time there was constant conflict between the many petty states, or kingdoms, each striving for the first place.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	constant	constant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	conflict	conflict	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	between	between	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	petty	petty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	states	state	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	kingdoms	kingdom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	nsubj	_	_
18	striving	strive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	acl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	amod	_	_
22	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | constant conflict |  |  | time | between the many petty states or kingdoms | tree rules |
| 2 | **strive** | gerund | each | constant conflict *not said here* |  |  |  | for the first place | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/11/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/11/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Jade Treasure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/11/)