---
title: When the boy heard this he was frightened and said, “Alas! alas! wha… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When the boy heard this he was frightened and said, “Alas! alas! what have I done!” Who acts: boy, I. 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 48

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When the boy heard this he was frightened and said, “Alas! alas! what have I done!”

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**Who acts:** boy, I · **What happens:** hear, frighten, say, do · **To what, where:** this, boy · **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 (boy, I), 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:pg75089:19:48
# text = When the boy heard this he was frightened and said, “Alas! alas! what have I done!”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
15	alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the boy | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **frighten** | past · passive |  | boy |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  | alas *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | 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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