---
title: “But, mother, I never saw or heard of him before,” was the reply of… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “But, mother, I never saw or heard of him before,” was the reply of Kan Lang. Who acts: 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 63

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“But, mother, I never saw or heard of him before,” was the reply of Kan Lang.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not see, hear, be · **To what, where:** reply · **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 (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:pg75089:19:63
# text = “But, mother, I never saw or heard of him before,” was the reply of Kan Lang.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	dislocated	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	csubj	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	before	before	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Kan	Kan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	Lang	Lang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  | mother *dislocated* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **hear** *in a quote* | past | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of Son; before *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of he=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** *speech: assert* | past |  | the reply |  |  |  | of Kan | 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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