---
title: At last the robbers set fire to several houses in the village, and a… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: At last the robbers set fire to several houses in the village, and after stealing all they could carry away with them, departed. Who acts: last robbers, robbers. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Present, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Present, sentence 8

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At last the robbers set fire to several houses in the village, and after stealing all they could carry away with them, departed.

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**Who acts:** last robbers, robbers · **What happens:** set, steal, carry away, depart · **To what, where:** fire, village, all

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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 (last robbers, robbers), 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:pg75089:15:8
# text = At last the robbers set fire to several houses in the village, and after stealing all they could carry away with them, departed.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	obj	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
21	away	away	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	departed	depart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past | the last robbers | fire |  | the village |  | to several houses | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent fire=Theme in village=Destination |
| 2 | **steal** | gerund | robbers *= robber* *not said here* | all |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location all=Theme |
| 3 | **carry away** | could | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  | with villages *= village*; away *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **depart** | past | the last robbers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «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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