---
title: He caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman inside, and said to his c… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman inside, and said to his companions: Who acts: Nien. 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.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 26

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He caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman inside, and said to his companions:

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**Who acts:** Nien · **What happens:** catch, say, glimpse · **To what, where:** glimpse, companions, beautiful woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Nien), 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:pg75089:17:26
# text = He caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman inside, and said to his companions:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	glimpse	glimpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | Nien | a glimpse of the beautiful woman |  |  |  | inside *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent glimpse=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nien *not said here* |  | Nien's companions |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to companion=Recipient |
| 3 | **glimpse** |  |  | the beautiful woman |  |  |  |  | nom glimpse «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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