---
title: While Sun Hou was pondering, a big turtle came along and said, “I kn… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: While Sun Hou was pondering, a big turtle came along and said, “I knock my head to you. Who acts: Sun Hou, big 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 clau
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 64

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While Sun Hou was pondering, a big turtle came along and said, “I knock my head to you.

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**Who acts:** Sun Hou, big turtle · **What happens:** ponder, come along, say, knock · **To what, where:** head, you · **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 (Sun Hou, big turtle), 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:pg75089:16:64
# text = While Sun Hou was pondering, a big turtle came along and said, “I knock my head to you.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Hou	Hou	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	pondering	ponder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	along	along	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	knock	knock	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ponder** | past · progressive | Sun Hou |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come along** | past | a big turtle |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a big turtle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **knock** *in a quote* | present | a big turtle *= turtle* | my head | you |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent head=Theme to you=Destination |

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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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