---
title: They said these persons must first prove their strength before they… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said these persons must first prove their strength before they could go on their way. Who acts: ministers, persons. 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 cl
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 73

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They said these persons must first prove their strength before they could go on their way.

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**Who acts:** ministers, persons · **What happens:** say, prove, go · **To what, where:** strength, way · **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 (ministers, persons), 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:pg75089:16:73
# text = They said these persons must first prove their strength before they could go on their way.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	advmod	_	_
7	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | ministers *= minister* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **prove** | must | this persons | ministers's strength |  |  |  | first *property* | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strength=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | could | ministers *= minister* |  |  | ministers's way |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on way=Location |

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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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