---
title: “Not now, my son,” was the quiet but sad reply. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “Not now, my son,” was the quiet but sad reply. Who acts: son. 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 26

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“Not now, my son,” was the quiet but sad reply.

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** quiet reply

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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 (son), 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:pg75089:18:26
# text = “Not now, my son,” was the quiet but sad reply.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
11	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
14	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | my son | the quiet reply |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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