---
title: For food he was given permission to take a handful of grain from eac… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: For food he was given permission to take a handful of grain from each bag of tribute rice that he saw on carts passing through the city. Who acts: Yang, carts. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 2, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 76

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For food he was given permission to take a handful of grain from each bag of tribute rice that he saw on carts passing through the city.

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**Who acts:** Yang, carts · **What happens:** give, take, see, pass · **To what, where:** Yang, handful, bag, carts, city

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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 (Yang, carts), 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:pg75089:18:76
# text = For food he was given permission to take a handful of grain from each bag of tribute rice that he saw on carts passing through the city.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	handful	handful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	tribute	tribute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	rice	rice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	carts	cart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
24	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	through	through	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past · passive |  | Yang |  |  |  | for food; permission *obj* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: subject=Recipient permission=Theme for food=Asset |
| 2 | **take** | to-infinitive |  | a handful of grain |  | each bag of tribute rice |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent handful=Theme from bag=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **see** | past | Yang |  |  | carts |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **pass** | gerund | carts *not said here* |  |  | the city |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through city=Location |

<!-- .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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