---
title: They said, “If we go, we shall certainly be captured, and either kil… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said, “If we go, we shall certainly be captured, and either killed or held for a big ransom.” Who acts: neighbours, we. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Present, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Present, sentence 16

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They said, “If we go, we shall certainly be captured, and either killed or held for a big ransom.”

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**Who acts:** neighbours, we · **What happens:** say, go, capture, kill, hold · **To what, where:** we · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Present. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (neighbours, we), 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:pg75089:15:16
# text = They said, “If we go, we shall certainly be captured, and either killed or held for a big ransom.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	captured	capture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	either	either	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	ccomp	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	ransom	ransom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	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 | neighbours *= neighbour* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **capture** *in a quote* | shall · passive |  | we |  |  |  | certainly *property* | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | either *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **hold** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for a big ransom | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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