---
title: Some day when you are a little older I will tell you the history of… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Some day when you are a little older I will tell you the history of our sad lives. Who acts: you, I. 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 20

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Some day when you are a little older I will tell you the history of our sad lives.

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**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** be, tell · **To what, where:** history, you · **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 (you, I), 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:pg75089:18:20
# text = Some day when you are a little older I will tell you the history of our sad lives.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl	_	_
8	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  | day | a little *obl*; old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | future | I | the history of our sad lives | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient history=Topic |

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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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