---
title: Her great dark eyes were at some times like deep wells at the bottom… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Her great dark eyes were at some times like deep wells at the bottom of which truth lay, at others like stars emitting a tender light, and at others like hot coals flashing fires of generous and righteous wrath. Who acts: great dark eyes, times, stars, hot coals. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chines
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, An Appreciation of Nellie N. Russell, sentence 10

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Her great dark eyes were at some times like deep wells at the bottom of which truth lay, at others like stars emitting a tender light, and at others like hot coals flashing fires of generous and righteous wrath.

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**Who acts:** great dark eyes, times, stars, hot coals · **What happens:** be, lay, emit, flash, fire · **To what, where:** others, tender light, fires, generous wrath

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, An Appreciation of Nellie N. Russell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great dark eyes, times, stars, hot coals), 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:pg75089:2:10
# text = Her great dark eyes were at some times like deep wells at the bottom of which truth lay, at others like stars emitting a tender light, and at others like hot coals flashing fires of generous and righteous wrath.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	wells	well	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	17	det	_	_
17	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
24	emitting	emit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	tender	tender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
32	like	like	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	coals	coal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	_
35	flashing	flash	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	acl	_	_
36	fires	fire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	generous	generous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	righteous	righteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	conj	_	_
41	wrath	wrath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Nellie's great dark eyes |  |  |  | at some times | like deep wells at the bottom of which truth | tree rules |
| 2 | **lay** | present | some times |  |  | others like stars |  | at others like hot coals | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at other=Destination |
| 3 | **emit** | gerund | stars *not said here* | a tender light |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source light=Theme |
| 4 | **flash** | gerund | hot coals *not said here* | fires of generous wrath |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent fire=Theme |
| 5 | **fire** |  |  | generous wrath |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: of=patient |

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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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