---
title: At first they said no, but finally gave us five minutes, and we fair… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At first they said no, but finally gave us five minutes, and we fairly flew from court to court and room to room. Who acts: missionaries, we. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Chinese Heroism, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 23

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At first they said no, but finally gave us five minutes, and we fairly flew from court to court and room to room.

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**Who acts:** missionaries, we · **What happens:** say, give, fly · **To what, where:** us, court · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Chinese Heroism. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (missionaries, we), 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:pg75089:12:23
# text = At first they said no, but finally gave us five minutes, and we fairly flew from court to court and room to room.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	finally	finally	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	fairly	fairly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | missionaries *= missionary* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent no=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | past | missionaries *= missionary* *not said here* |  | us |  | minute | finally *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |
| 3 | **fly** | past | we |  |  | court |  | to court and room  room; fairly *property* | vn drive-11.5-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent from court=Initial\_Location to court=Destination |

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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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