---
title: When I asked you if I had an ‘older sister’ you said no! — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When I asked you if I had an ‘older sister’ you said no! Who acts: I, 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 73

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When I asked you if I had an ‘older sister’ you said no!

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**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** ask, have, say · **To what, where:** you, older sister · **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, 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:pg75089:19:73
# text = When I asked you if I had an ‘older sister’ you said no!
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	amod	_	_
11	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 2 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | a older sister |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sister=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent no=Topic |

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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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