---
title: The brave British soldier went to his dangerous post not knowing whe… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The brave British soldier went to his dangerous post not knowing when a stray bullet would pick him off. Who acts: brave British soldier, stray bullet. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Chinese Heroism, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Chinese Heroism, sentence 4

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The brave British soldier went to his dangerous post not knowing when a stray bullet would pick him off.

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**Who acts:** brave British soldier, stray bullet · **What happens:** go, not know, pick off · **To what, where:** dangerous post, soldier

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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 (brave British soldier, stray bullet), 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:pg75089:12:4
# text = The brave British soldier went to his dangerous post not knowing when a stray bullet would pick him off.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	post	post	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	stray	stray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	bullet	bullet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	off	off	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the brave British soldier |  |  | soldier's dangerous post |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to post=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **not** **know** | gerund | the brave British soldier *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **pick off** | would | a stray bullet | soldier |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

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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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