---
title: While thus sitting the sheep changed himself into a worm and crawled… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: While thus sitting the sheep changed himself into a worm and crawled up on the bald head of the priest, and bit his head in many places. 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 pragma
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 77

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While thus sitting the sheep changed himself into a worm and crawled up on the bald head of the priest, and bit his head in many places.

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**What happens:** sit, change, crawl up, bite · **To what, where:** sheep, T’ang, bald head, head, many places

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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: 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:pg75089:16:77
# text = While thus sitting the sheep changed himself into a worm and crawled up on the bald head of the priest, and bit his head in many places.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	changed	change	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	bald	bald	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	bit	bite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | gerund |  | the sheep |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sheep=Theme |
| 2 | **change** | past |  | T’ang *= t'ang* |  |  |  | into a worm *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Patient into worm=Result |
| 3 | **crawl up** | past |  |  |  | the bald head of the priest |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on head=Trajectory |
| 4 | **bite** | past |  | T’ang's head |  | many places |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent head=Patient in place=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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