---
title: When they reached the bank of the river the turtle was there waiting… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When they reached the bank of the river the turtle was there waiting to carry them across. Who acts: vanity, turtle. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/153/)

<!-- 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/) / [T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhi…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/) / 153

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 153

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they reached the bank of the river the turtle was there waiting to carry them across.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** vanity, turtle · **What happens:** reach, wait, carry · **To what, where:** bank, vanity

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (vanity, turtle), 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:pg75089:16:153
# text = When they reached the bank of the river the turtle was there waiting to carry them across.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
13	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	across	across	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | vanity | the bank of the river |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent bank=Theme |
| 2 | **wait** | past · progressive | the turtle |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **carry** | to-infinitive | the turtle *not said here* | vanity |  |  |  | across *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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 152](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/152/)
- next →: [sentence 154](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/154/)
- ↑ back to [T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/)