---
title: I thought she would want to read all the time and so had my son burn… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: I thought she would want to read all the time and so had my son burn her books. Who acts: I, mother, son. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Literary Glory, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Literary Glory, sentence 36

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I thought she would want to read all the time and so had my son burn her books.

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**Who acts:** I, mother, son · **What happens:** think, want, read, have, burn · **To what, where:** son, books · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Literary Glory. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, mother, son), 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:pg75089:13:36
# text = I thought she would want to read all the time and so had my son burn her books.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **want** | would | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **read** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past | I *not said here* | my son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **burn** | infinitive | my son *not said here* | mother's books |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent book=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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