---
title: The fathers of these children were out protecting the courts, and th… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The fathers of these children were out protecting the courts, and the two brave women were ready to die rather than seek shelter when in so doing they might endanger and bring disaster upon others. Who acts: fathers, women. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Chi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/31/)

<!-- 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/) / [Chinese Heroism](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/) / 31

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fathers of these children were out protecting the courts, and the two brave women were ready to die rather than seek shelter when in so doing they might endanger and bring disaster upon others.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fathers, women · **What happens:** protect, be, die, seek, do, endanger · **To what, where:** courts, shelter, disaster

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (fathers, women), 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:pg75089:12:31
# text = The fathers of these children were out protecting the courts, and the two brave women were ready to die rather than seek shelter when in so doing they might endanger and bring disaster upon others.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	protecting	protect	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	courts	court	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
15	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	23	cc	_	_
22	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
24	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
26	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	parataxis	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	endanger	endanger	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
34	disaster	disaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
35	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **protect** | gerund | the fathers of this children *not said here* | the courts |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent court=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **is** | past | the fathers of this children |  |  |  |  | the two brave women *nsubj*; ready *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **die** | to-infinitive | the fathers of this children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **seek** | infinitive | the fathers of this children *not said here* | shelter |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shelter=Theme |
| 5 | **do** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **endanger** | might | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **bring** | infinitive | women *= woman* *not said here* | disaster |  |  |  | upon others | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent disaster=Theme |

<!-- .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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/30/)
- next →: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/32/)
- ↑ back to [Chinese Heroism](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/)