---
title: They heard him say, “In the past I have taken the boy first, but to-… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: They heard him say, “In the past I have taken the boy first, but to-night I shall eat the girl first.” Who acts: caravans, door, Sun. 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 pragmatic
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 44

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They heard him say, “In the past I have taken the boy first, but to-night I shall eat the girl first.”

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**Who acts:** caravans, door, Sun · **What happens:** hear, say, take, eat · **To what, where:** door, boy, past, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (caravans, door, Sun), 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:pg75089:16:44
# text = They heard him say, “In the past I have taken the boy first, but to-night I shall eat the girl first.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	In	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | caravans *= caravan* | door |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | door *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Sun | the boy |  | the past |  | first *property* | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent boy=Value in past=Location |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | shall | Sun | the girl |  |  | night | first *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Patient |

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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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