---
title: When they decided to stay outside they were as true martyrs as any w… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When they decided to stay outside they were as true martyrs as any who went to the block. Who acts: fathers. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Chinese Heroism, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/32/)

<!-- 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/) / 32

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they decided to stay outside they were as true martyrs as any who went to the block.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fathers · **What happens:** decide, stay, be, go · **To what, where:** block

<!-- .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), 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:pg75089:12:32
# text = When they decided to stay outside they were as true martyrs as any who went to the block.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	martyrs	martyr	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	nmod	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	block	block	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decide** | past | fathers *= father* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **stay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | fathers *= father* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | fathers *= father* |  |  |  |  | outside true martyrs; as any | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | past |  |  |  | the block |  | who *nsubj* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to block=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/33/)
- ↑ back to [Chinese Heroism](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/12/)