---
title: There seemed no harm in this, and as no one liked to refuse Yen Sung… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: There seemed no harm in this, and as no one liked to refuse Yen Sung anything, they decided to accept his invitation. Who acts: carts, caravan. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 13

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There seemed no harm in this, and as no one liked to refuse Yen Sung anything, they decided to accept his invitation.

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**Who acts:** carts, caravan · **What happens:** seem, like, refuse, sing, decide, accept · **To what, where:** harm, this, one, anything, invitation

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (carts, caravan), 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:pg75089:17:13
# text = There seemed no harm in this, and as no one liked to refuse Yen Sung anything, they decided to accept his invitation.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
12	liked	like	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	Yen	Yen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	Sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	accept	accept	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	invitation	invitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past |  | no harm |  | this; there |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme harm=Attribute |
| 2 | **like** | participle |  | no one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **refuse** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | anything |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | Yen *compound* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **decide** | past | carts *= cart* |  |  |  |  | as no one | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **accept** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | carts *= cart* *not said here* | caravan's invitation |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent invitation=Theme |
| 7 | **invite** |  | caravan |  |  |  |  |  | nom invitation «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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