---
title: At last it was so decided, and the minister started on his errand. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At last it was so decided, and the minister started on his errand. Who acts: minister. 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 35

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At last it was so decided, and the minister started on his errand.

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**Who acts:** minister · **What happens:** decide, start · **To what, where:** last, errand

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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 (minister), 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:pg75089:11:35
# text = At last it was so decided, and the minister started on his errand.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	nsubj:outer	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decide** | past · passive |  | last  city |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **start** | past | the minister |  |  | minister's errand |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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