---
title: Nien Chi inquired of a “street keeper” who lived in the place, and g… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Nien Chi inquired of a “street keeper” who lived in the place, and great was his delight when he heard that it was the family hated by his master. Who acts: Nien, street keeper, gatekeeper. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1, with it
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/40/)

<!-- 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/) / 40

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nien Chi inquired of a “street keeper” who lived in the place, and great was his delight when he heard that it was the family hated by his master.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nien, street keeper, gatekeeper · **What happens:** inquire, live, be, hear, hate · **To what, where:** place, great delight, family · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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: who acts (Nien, street keeper, gatekeeper), 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:pg75089:17:40
# text = Nien Chi inquired of a “street keeper” who lived in the place, and great was his delight when he heard that it was the family hated by his master.
1	Nien	Nien	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Chi	Chi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	keeper	keeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	delight	delight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	ccomp	_	_
29	hated	hate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
30	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | Nien |  |  |  |  | of a street keeper | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of keeper=Recipient |
| 2 | **live** | past | a street keeper |  |  | the place |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in place=Location |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | Nien's great delight |  |  |  | Nien *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hear** | past | Nien |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** | past | gatekeeper | the family |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hate** | participle |  | the family *not said here* |  |  |  | by Nien's master | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/41/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/)