---
title: They asked for “Lady Yü,” which much surprised her neighbours. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: They asked for “Lady Yü,” which much surprised her neighbours. Who acts: servants. 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 132

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They asked for “Lady Yü,” which much surprised her neighbours.

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**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** ask, surprise · **To what, where:** neighbours

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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), 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:pg75089:19:132
# text = They asked for “Lady Yü,” which much surprised her neighbours.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Lady	Lady	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	Yü	Yü	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
10	much	much	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	surprised	surprise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | for Lady | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **surprise** | past |  | lady's neighbours |  |  |  | which *obj* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus which=Experiencer neighbour=Result |

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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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