---
title: Saying this, he rode on, followed by his friends. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Saying this, he rode on, followed by his friends. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 122

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Saying this, he rode on, followed by his friends.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** say, ride on, follow · **To what, where:** this · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg75089:18:122
# text = Saying this, he rode on, followed by his friends.
1	Saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | boy *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 2 | **ride on** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **follow** | participle | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | boy's friends *obl:agent* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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