---
title: When the servants reached Peking they had a hard time to find the sm… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When the servants reached Peking they had a hard time to find the small court where she had her little room. Who acts: servants, Peking. 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 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the servants reached Peking they had a hard time to find the small court where she had her little room.

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**Who acts:** servants, Peking · **What happens:** reach, have, find · **To what, where:** Peking, small court, little room

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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 (servants, Peking), 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:pg75089:19:131
# text = When the servants reached Peking they had a hard time to find the small court where she had her little room.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
5	Peking	Peking	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | the servants | Peking |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent peking=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | servants *= servant* |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive | servants *= servant* *not said here* | the small court |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent court=Topic |
| 4 | **have** | past | Peking | Peking's little room |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent room=Patient |

<!-- .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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