---
title: (The story of her life, set in song and always sung in tears, praise… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: (The story of her life, set in song and always sung in tears, praises her in words seldom given to any woman.) 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 clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/23/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [A Story of Old China, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/) / 23

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
(The story of her life, set in song and always sung in tears, praises her in words seldom given to any woman.)

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** set, sing, praise, give · **To what, where:** story, song, tears, Ying, words, woman

<!-- .vabout -->
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: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:17:23
# text = (The story of her life, set in song and always sung in tears, praises her in words seldom given to any woman.)
1	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	praises	praise	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | participle |  | the story of Ying's life *not said here* |  | song |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in song=Destination |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | participle |  |  |  | tears |  | always *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in tear=Location |
| 3 | **praise** | present |  | Ying |  | words |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | participle |  |  | any woman |  |  | seldom *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to woman=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/22/)
- next →: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/24/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/)