---
title: He begged a few bits of money, bought a pen, ink, and some paper, an… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He begged a few bits of money, bought a pen, ink, and some paper, and as he was a very beautiful writer, he employed his time in writing Chinese characters and selling them on the street. Who acts: Yang. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, p
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 2, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He begged a few bits of money, bought a pen, ink, and some paper, and as he was a very beautiful writer, he employed his time in writing Chinese characters and selling them on the street.

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**Who acts:** Yang · **What happens:** beg, buy, be, employ, sell · **To what, where:** few bits, pen, beautiful writer, Chinese characters, writing, characters

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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), 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:pg75089:18:79
# text = He begged a few bits of money, bought a pen, ink, and some paper, and as he was a very beautiful writer, he employed his time in writing Chinese characters and selling them on the street.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	bits	bit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	pen	pen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	ink	ink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	writer	writer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	employed	employ	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	selling	sell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	conj	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	on	on	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Yang | a few bits of money |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent bit=Recipient |
| 2 | **buy** | past | Yang *not said here* | a pen and ink |  |  |  | some paper *obl* | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pen=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | Yang | a beautiful writer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **employ** | past | Yang | Chinese characters |  | writing | time |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent character=Theme |
| 5 | **sell** | gerund | Yang *not said here* | characters *= character* |  | the street |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent they=Theme on street=Asset |

<!-- .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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