---
title: At first they did not believe his story and a great search was made,… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At first they did not believe his story and a great search was made, but they could find no trace of the treasure. Who acts: gods. 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 56

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At first they did not believe his story and a great search was made, but they could find no trace of the treasure.

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**Who acts:** gods · **What happens:** not believe, make, find · **To what, where:** story, great search, trace

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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 (gods), 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:pg75089:11:56
# text = At first they did not believe his story and a great search was made, but they could find no trace of the treasure.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	obl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	trace	trace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | past · do-support | gods *= god* | Prince's story |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 2 | **make** | past · passive |  | a great search |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 3 | **find** | could | gods *= god* | no trace of the treasure |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trace=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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