---
title: They seem to belong to some big man, but their dialect is not of thi… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: They seem to belong to some big man, but their dialect is not of this province.” Who acts: neighbours, dialect. 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 136

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They seem to belong to some big man, but their dialect is not of this province.”

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**Who acts:** neighbours, dialect · **What happens:** seem, belong, not be

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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 (neighbours, dialect), 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:pg75089:19:136
# text = They seem to belong to some big man, but their dialect is not of this province.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seem	seem	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	belong	belong	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	dialect	dialect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	province	province	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | neighbours *= neighbour* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **belong** | to-infinitive | neighbours *= neighbour* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to some big man | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | neighbours's dialect |  |  |  |  | of this province | tree rules |

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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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