---
title: “Well,” said the Sheep, “we will build a fire, put on a big kettle o… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well,” said the Sheep, “we will build a fire, put on a big kettle of oil, and when it boils we will take turns in getting in and staying two hours. Who acts: Sheep, we, fire. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, 
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, T’ang Sung’s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics, sentence 93

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“Well,” said the Sheep, “we will build a fire, put on a big kettle of oil, and when it boils we will take turns in getting in and staying two hours.

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**Who acts:** Sheep, we, fire · **What happens:** say, build, put, boil, take, get in · **To what, where:** fire, big kettle, turns · **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 (Sheep, we, fire), 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:pg75089:16:93
# text = “Well,” said the Sheep, “we will build a fire, put on a big kettle of oil, and when it boils we will take turns in getting in and staying two hours.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	kettle	kettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	boils	boil	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
28	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
31	turns	turn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
32	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
33	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	advcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	conj	_	_
37	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
38	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Sheep |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **build** *in a quote* | future | we | a fire |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Product |
| 3 | **put** *in a quote* | participle | we *not said here* |  |  | a big kettle of oil |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on kettle=Destination |
| 4 | **boil** *in a quote* | present | fire |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** *in a quote* | future | we | turns |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent turn=Theme |
| 6 | **get in** *in a quote* | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **stay** *in a quote* | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  |  | hour |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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