---
title: It was with many sobs and tears that the story was told, and before… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: It was with many sobs and tears that the story was told, and before he was through the lady was weeping with him. Who acts: search, Ting, many sobs. 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 e
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/19/45/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [A Story of Old China, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/19/) / 45

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was with many sobs and tears that the story was told, and before he was through the lady was weeping with him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** search, Ting, many sobs · **What happens:** be, tell, weep · **To what, where:** that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (search, Ting, many sobs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:19:45
# text = It was with many sobs and tears that the story was told, and before he was through the lady was weeping with him.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sobs	sob	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | search |  |  |  |  | with many sobs and tears; tears *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | that |  |  |  | the story *nsubj:pass* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Ting |  |  |  | before the lady |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **weep** | past · progressive | many sobs and tears *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Ting | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/19/44/)
- next →: [sentence 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/19/46/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/19/)