---
title: She sent a servant to call her own little son, Kan Lang, and when he… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: She sent a servant to call her own little son, Kan Lang, and when he came he asked, “Did you call me, mother?” Who acts: mother, Son, you. 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 claus
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She sent a servant to call her own little son, Kan Lang, and when he came he asked, “Did you call me, mother?”

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**Who acts:** mother, Son, you · **What happens:** send, call, come, ask · **To what, where:** servant, own little son, Son · **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, Son, you), 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:pg75089:19:59
# text = She sent a servant to call her own little son, Kan Lang, and when he came he asked, “Did you call me, mother?”
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
8	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	Kan	Kan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
13	Lang	Lang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
26	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | mother | a servant |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Theme |
| 2 | **call** | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* |  | mother's own little son |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent son=Recipient |
| 3 | **come** | past | Son |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Son |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **call** *in a quote* | past · do-support | you |  | Son |  |  | mother *obl* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

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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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