---
title: He put it off from month to month, but it did not become any easier… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He put it off from month to month, but it did not become any easier as time went by, and the riches, beautiful home, and family were driving all that dark past more and more from his mind. Who acts: Tu, temptation, riches. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A St
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 104

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He put it off from month to month, but it did not become any easier as time went by, and the riches, beautiful home, and family were driving all that dark past more and more from his mind.

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**Who acts:** Tu, temptation, riches · **What happens:** put off, not become, go by, drive, mind · **To what, where:** temptation, dark past, mind

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tu, temptation, riches), 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:pg75089:18:104
# text = He put it off from month to month, but it did not become any easier as time went by, and the riches, beautiful home, and family were driving all that dark past more and more from his mind.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	month	month	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	month	month	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
15	any	any	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	xcomp	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
33	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	36	det:predet	_	_
34	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	det	_	_
35	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
37	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	32	advmod	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	37	conj	_	_
40	from	from	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put off** | past | Tu | temptation |  |  | month |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal |
| 2 | **not** **become** | past · do-support | temptation |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **go by** | past | temptation *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **drive** | past · progressive | the riches and beautiful home and family | all dark past |  | Tu's mind |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent past=Theme from mind=Trajectory |
| 5 | **mind** |  | Tu |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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