---
title: Together they wept and knocked their heads, but only to be joined al… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Together they wept and knocked their heads, but only to be joined almost at once by Nien Chi. Who acts: servants. 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 31

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Together they wept and knocked their heads, but only to be joined almost at once by Nien Chi.

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**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** weep, knock, join · **To what, where:** heads

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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 (servants), 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:pg75089:17:31
# text = Together they wept and knocked their heads, but only to be joined almost at once by Nien Chi.
1	Together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	joined	join	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	13	advmod	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Nien	Nien	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
19	Chi	Chi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weep** | past | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **knock** | past | servants *= servant* *not said here* | servants's heads |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **join** | to-infinitive · passive | servants *= servant* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V» |

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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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