---
title: Meantime the old father and mother, having heard the crying and loud… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Meantime the old father and mother, having heard the crying and loud voices, came to the door. Who acts: old father. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 100

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Meantime the old father and mother, having heard the crying and loud voices, came to the door.

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**Who acts:** old father · **What happens:** have, hear, come · **To what, where:** heard crying, door, old father

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old father), 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:pg75089:19:100
# text = Meantime the old father and mother, having heard the crying and loud voices, came to the door.
1	Meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	having	have	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	amod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	crying	crying	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | gerund | the old father  Meantime and mother *not said here* | the heard crying and loud voices |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crying=Patient |
| 2 | **hear** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **come** | past |  |  |  | the door |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to door=Initial\_Location |

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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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