---
title: The cat said, “Mouse, I will save your life if you will do me a favo… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The cat said, “Mouse, I will save your life if you will do me a favour.” Who acts: cat, you. 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 61

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The cat said, “Mouse, I will save your life if you will do me a favour.”

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**Who acts:** cat, you · **What happens:** say, save, do · **To what, where:** Mouse, favour, cat · **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 (cat, you), 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:pg75089:14:61
# text = The cat said, “Mouse, I will save your life if you will do me a favour.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **save** *in a quote* | future | the cat *= cat* | Mouse |  |  |  | your life *obj* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 3 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | future | you | a favour | the cat *= cat* |  |  |  | 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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