---
title: He was tried and condemned to death. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He was tried and condemned to death. 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 74

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He was tried and condemned to death.

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**What happens:** try, condemn · **To what, where:** Nien

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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: 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:pg75089:17:74
# text = He was tried and condemned to death.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	condemned	condemn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past · passive |  | Nien |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **condemn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | to death | vn suspect-81 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |

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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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