---
title: Taking his girdle, he was fastening it about a beam in the temple wh… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Taking his girdle, he was fastening it about a beam in the temple when an old priest came in and said, “Son, what would you do? Who acts: he, old priest, Son. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 4

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Taking his girdle, he was fastening it about a beam in the temple when an old priest came in and said, “Son, what would you do?

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**Who acts:** he, old priest, Son · **What happens:** take, fasten, come in, say, do · **To what, where:** girdle, temple · **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 (he, old priest, Son), 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:pg75089:19:4
# text = Taking his girdle, he was fastening it about a beam in the temple when an old priest came in and said, “Son, what would you do?
1	Taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	girdle	girdle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	fastening	fasten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	beam	beam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	temple	temple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
15	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	19	mark	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Son	Son	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund |  | his girdle |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girdle=Theme |
| 2 | **fasten** | past · progressive | he | girdle |  | the temple |  | about a beam | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **come in** | past | a old priest |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | a old priest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | would | Son |  |  |  |  | what *obj*; you *nsubj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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