---
title: Whatever business they have they are to tell you.” — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Whatever business they have they are to tell you.” Who acts: business, neighbours. 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 138

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Whatever business they have they are to tell you.”

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**Who acts:** business, neighbours · **What happens:** be, have, tell · **To what, where:** Whatever, business, you · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (business, neighbours), 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:pg75089:19:138
# text = Whatever business they have they are to tell you.”
1	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	advcl	_	_
2	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | business | Whatever |  |  |  | neighbours *= neighbour* *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | present | neighbours *= neighbour* | business *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent business=Patient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

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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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