---
title: “A good supper,” thought he; “how can that be, since all we ever hav… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “A good supper,” thought he; “how can that be, since all we ever have is millet and cornmeal?” Who acts: good supper, we, that. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, sentence 26

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“A good supper,” thought he; “how can that be, since all we ever have is millet and cornmeal?”

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**Who acts:** good supper, we, that · **What happens:** think, have, be · **To what, where:** son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (good supper, we, that), 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:pg75089:14:26
# text = “A good supper,” thought he; “how can that be, since all we ever have is millet and cornmeal?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	since	since	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	20	advmod	_	_
20	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	millet	millet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	cornmeal	cornmeal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	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 | a good supper | son |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  | ever |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive | that |  |  |  | since all millet and cornmeal | cornmeal *conj* | tree rules |

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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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