---
title: He held out his document and, at a bow from the Emperor, a eunuch ca… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He held out his document and, at a bow from the Emperor, a eunuch came forward, took it, and placed it on the table by the Emperor’s side. Who acts: Ting, bow. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 4, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 100

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He held out his document and, at a bow from the Emperor, a eunuch came forward, took it, and placed it on the table by the Emperor’s side.

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**Who acts:** Ting, bow · **What happens:** hold out, come forward, take, place, document · **To what, where:** document, table

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ting, bow), 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:pg75089:20:100
# text = He held out his document and, at a bow from the Emperor, a eunuch came forward, took it, and placed it on the table by the Emperor’s side.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	document	document	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	eunuch	eunuch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold out** | past | Ting | Ting's document |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent document=Theme |
| 2 | **come forward** | past | a bow from the Emperor |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past | a bow from the Emperor *not said here* | document |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **place** | past | Ting *not said here* | document |  | the table |  | by the Emperor's side | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on table=Destination |
| 5 | **document** |  | Ting |  |  |  |  |  | nom document «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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