---
title: They refused at first, as they thought they could not provide anythi… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: They refused at first, as they thought they could not provide anything worth eating, but finally, at the old lady’s most earnest request, they consented. Who acts: relatives, old lady. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, wi
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, sentence 36

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They refused at first, as they thought they could not provide anything worth eating, but finally, at the old lady’s most earnest request, they consented.

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**Who acts:** relatives, old lady · **What happens:** refuse, think, not provide, eat, consent, request · **To what, where:** anything, earnest request · **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 (relatives, old lady), 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:pg75089:14:36
# text = They refused at first, as they thought they could not provide anything worth eating, but finally, at the old lady’s most earnest request, they consented.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	provide	provide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
13	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	obj	_	_
14	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
15	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
18	finally	finally	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	26	advmod	_	_
26	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	27	amod	_	_
27	request	request	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	consented	consent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | past | relatives *= relative* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | relatives *= relative* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **provide** | could | relatives *= relative* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition anything=Theme |
| 4 | **eat** | gerund | relatives *= relative* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **consent** | past | relatives *= relative* | the old lady's earnest request |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **request** |  | the old lady |  |  |  |  |  | nom request «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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