---
title: He made and unmade officials and no appointment could be secured exc… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He made and unmade officials and no appointment could be secured except through his influence. 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 4

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He made and unmade officials and no appointment could be secured except through his influence.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** make, unmake, secure · **To what, where:** officials, appointment

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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:pg75089:17:4
# text = He made and unmade officials and no appointment could be secured except through his influence.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	unmade	unmake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	officials	official	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
8	appointment	appointment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	secured	secure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
12	except	except	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	through	through	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	influence	influence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	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 | **make** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **unmake** | past | man *not said here* | officials |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent official=Patient |
| 3 | **secure** | could · passive |  | no appointment |  |  |  | except man's influence | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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