---
title: Many were the fierce battles they fought but neither could get the v… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Many were the fierce battles they fought but neither could get the victory. Who acts: Many fierce battles. 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/pg75089/16/53/)

<!-- 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/) / 53

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Many were the fierce battles they fought but neither could get the victory.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Many fierce battles · **What happens:** be, fight, get · **To what, where:** Many fierce battles, victory

<!-- .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 (Many fierce battles), 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:pg75089:16:53
# text = Many were the fierce battles they fought but neither could get the victory.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	battles	battle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	victory	victory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the Many fierce battles |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fight** | past | the Many fierce battles |  |  |  |  | others *= other* *nsubj* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **get** | could | the Many fierce battles *not said here* | the victory |  |  |  | neither *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer victory=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/52/)
- next →: [sentence 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/54/)
- ↑ back to [T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/16/)