---
title: Saw how he had kept back and brought to death many a good, worthy of… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Saw how he had kept back and brought to death many a good, worthy official. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 103

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Saw how he had kept back and brought to death many a good, worthy official.

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**What happens:** see, keep back, bring · **To what, where:** thing, many, death · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg75089:20:103
# text = Saw how he had kept back and brought to death many a good, worthy official.
1	Saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	ccomp	_	_
6	back	back	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	worthy	worthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	official	official	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **keep back** | past · perfect · passive |  | thing |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **bring** | past |  | many |  | death |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent many=Theme to death=Destination |

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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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