---
title: Much to his surprise, Mr. Kao found his wife waiting for him. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Much to his surprise, Mr. Kao found his wife waiting for him. Who acts: Kao, wife, Wang. 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 85

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Much to his surprise, Mr. Kao found his wife waiting for him.

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**Who acts:** Kao, wife, Wang · **What happens:** find, wait, surprise · **To what, where:** Much

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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 (Kao, wife, Wang), 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:pg75089:17:85
# text = Much to his surprise, Mr. Kao found his wife waiting for him.
1	Much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obj	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:desc	_	_
7	Kao	Kao	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | Kao  Mr. | Much |  |  |  | to Wang's surprise; Wang's wife *obj* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent much=Theme wife=Attribute |
| 2 | **wait** | gerund | Wang's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Wang | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **surprise** |  | Wang |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=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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