---
title: She came forward and, kneeling before him, she said, “We are about t… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: She came forward and, kneeling before him, she said, “We are about to separate, possibly forever; what commands have you for me? Who acts: woman, We, commands. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 1, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 1, sentence 86

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She came forward and, kneeling before him, she said, “We are about to separate, possibly forever; what commands have you for me?

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**Who acts:** woman, We, commands · **What happens:** come forward, kneel, say, be, separate, have · **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 (woman, We, commands), 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:pg75089:17:86
# text = She came forward and, kneeling before him, she said, “We are about to separate, possibly forever; what commands have you for me?
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	kneeling	kneel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	about	about	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	separate	separate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
24	commands	command	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
25	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come forward** | past | woman |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **kneel** | gerund | woman *not said here* |  |  |  | before Wang |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | We |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **separate** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | forever *property* | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **have** *in a quote* | present | commands |  |  |  |  | for woman; what *obj*; you *nsubj* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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