---
title: The young man could hardly believe his ears, and looked in amazement… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The young man could hardly believe his ears, and looked in amazement, and at last said, “How can that be? Who acts: young man. 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 94

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The young man could hardly believe his ears, and looked in amazement, and at last said, “How can that be?

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**Who acts:** young man · **What happens:** believe, look, say · **To what, where:** ears, last · **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 (young man), 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:pg75089:18:94
# text = The young man could hardly believe his ears, and looked in amazement, and at last said, “How can that be?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	amazement	amazement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | could | the young man | Hu's ears |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ear=Stimulus |
| 2 | **look** | past |  |  |  |  |  | in amazement | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in amazement=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  | last |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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