---
title: We promised to help them with their little ones and their look of gr… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: We promised to help them with their little ones and their look of gratitude was most touching. Who acts: We, look. 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 30

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We promised to help them with their little ones and their look of gratitude was most touching.

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**Who acts:** We, look · **What happens:** promise, help, touch · **To what, where:** others

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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 (We, look), 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:pg75089:12:30
# text = We promised to help them with their little ones and their look of gratitude was most touching.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	gratitude	gratitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	17	advmod	_	_
17	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **help** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | others *= other* |  |  |  | with others's little ones | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary with one=Theme |
| 3 | **touch** | past · progressive | others's look of gratitude |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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