---
title: When Mr. Wang told Mr. Kao of the plan, he said, “She won’t come; a… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When Mr. Wang told Mr. Kao of the plan, he said, “She won’t come; a woman is like a garment that one can take off at pleasure and it is all the same to them.” Who acts: Wang, news, woman, one. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1, with
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/82/)

<!-- 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/) / 82

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When Mr. Wang told Mr. Kao of the plan, he said, “She won’t come; a woman is like a garment that one can take off at pleasure and it is all the same to them.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Wang, news, woman, one, place · **What happens:** tell, say, not come, be, take off · **To what, where:** Kao, garment, pleasure, carts · **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 (Wang, news, woman, one), 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:pg75089:17:82
# text = When Mr. Wang told Mr. Kao of the plan, he said, “She won’t come; a woman is like a garment that one can take off at pleasure and it is all the same to them.”
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:desc	_	_
3	Wang	Wang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod:desc	_	_
6	Kao	Kao	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	garment	garment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
36	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	38	det:predet	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	conj	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Wang  Mr. |  | Kao  Mr. of the plan |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent kao=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Wang |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **come** *in a quote* | future | news |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | a woman |  |  |  |  | like a garment | tree rules |
| 5 | **take off** *in a quote* | can | one | a garment |  | pleasure |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | place |  | carts *= cart* |  |  | same *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/81/)
- next →: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/83/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/17/)