---
title: “I remember hearing my mother say that he was older than she by two… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “I remember hearing my mother say that he was older than she by two years, and so he should be thirty-eight.” Who acts: mother, 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 30

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“I remember hearing my mother say that he was older than she by two years, and so he should be thirty-eight.”

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**Who acts:** mother, father · **What happens:** remember, hear, say, be · **To what, where:** thirty eight · **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 (mother, 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:pg75089:19:30
# text = “I remember hearing my mother say that he was older than she by two years, and so he should be thirty-eight.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	remember	remember	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	ccomp	_	_
12	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
21	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
23	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** *in a quote* | present | my mother *= mother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** *in a quote* | gerund | my mother *= mother* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | my mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | past | father |  |  |  | year | than mother; old *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | should | father | thirty eight |  |  |  |  | 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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