---
title: “Son, listen to me; I will help you find your father again, and a pl… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “Son, listen to me; I will help you find your father again, and a plan by which he must own you. Who acts: Son, poor lad, 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 clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Son, listen to me; I will help you find your father again, and a plan by which he must own you.

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**Who acts:** Son, poor lad, you · **What happens:** listen, help, find, own · **To what, where:** plan, poor lad, you, father

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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 (Son, poor lad, 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:pg75089:19:7
# text = “Son, listen to me; I will help you find your father again, and a plan by which he must own you.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Son	Son	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	listen	listen	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	again	again	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	own	own	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** *in a quote* | infinitive | Son | a plan | the poor lad *= lad* |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to i=Theme |
| 2 | **help** *in a quote* | future | the poor lad *= lad* | you |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 3 | **find** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | your father |  |  | again |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent father=Topic |
| 4 | **own** *in a quote* | must | Son | you |  |  |  | by a plan | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot you=Theme |

<!-- .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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