---
title: This man, Yen Sung, was the most powerful man in the Empire at that… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: This man, Yen Sung, was the most powerful man in the Empire at that time, and also one of the most unscrupulous. Who acts: man. 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 3

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This man, Yen Sung, was the most powerful man in the Empire at that time, and also one of the most unscrupulous.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** powerful man, Empire

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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 (man), 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:pg75089:17:3
# text = This man, Yen Sung, was the most powerful man in the Empire at that time, and also one of the most unscrupulous.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	Yen	Yen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
5	Sung	Sung	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	10	advmod	_	_
10	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Empire	Empire	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	also	also	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	conj	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	25	advmod	_	_
25	unscrupulous	unscrupulous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this man | the powerful man |  | the Empire | time | one *conj* | tree rules |

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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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