---
title: At last one of them asked how she could afford to provide such expen… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At last one of them asked how she could afford to provide such expensive food, and the old lady in pride of heart brought forth her treasure and told her secret to the guests. Who acts: lady, old lady. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, How the Dog and Cat Came 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/39/)

<!-- 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/) / [How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/) / 39

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last one of them asked how she could afford to provide such expensive food, and the old lady in pride of heart brought forth her treasure and told her secret to the guests.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** lady, old lady · **What happens:** ask, afford, provide, bring, tell, pride · **To what, where:** such expensive food, treasure, secret, guests, heart · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (lady, old lady), 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:pg75089:14:39
# text = At last one of them asked how she could afford to provide such expensive food, and the old lady in pride of heart brought forth her treasure and told her secret to the guests.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	afford	afford	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	provide	provide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	expensive	expensive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	pride	pride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
26	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  | at last one of relatives | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **afford** | could | lady |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **provide** | to-infinitive | lady *not said here* | such expensive food |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition food=Theme |
| 4 | **bring** | past | the old lady in pride of heart | lady's treasure |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent treasure=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  | lady's secret | the guests |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent secret=Topic to guest=Recipient |
| 6 | **pride** |  |  | heart |  |  |  |  | nom pride «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **treasure** |  | lady |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession 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.

<!-- 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 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/38/)
- next →: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/40/)
- ↑ back to [How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/)