---
title: Nien Chi smiled and said, “Don’t be anxious, lady, your husband is m… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Nien Chi smiled and said, “Don’t be anxious, lady, your husband is my good brother by rite of blood. Who acts: Nien, husband. 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 60

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Nien Chi smiled and said, “Don’t be anxious, lady, your husband is my good brother by rite of blood.

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**Who acts:** Nien, husband · **What happens:** smile, say, not be, be · **To what, where:** good brother · **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, husband), 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:pg75089:17:60
# text = Nien Chi smiled and said, “Don’t be anxious, lady, your husband is my good brother by rite of blood.
1	Nien	Nien	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Chi	Chi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	rite	rite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smile** | past | Nien |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nien *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | lady and my good brother *conj*; anxious *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | your husband | my good brother |  |  |  | by rite of blood; my *nmod:poss* | 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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