---
title: The Superior Man may be poor in bodily comforts, but he is not poor… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The Superior Man may be poor in bodily comforts, but he is not poor in wisdom or virtue. Who acts: Superior Man, Man. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/13/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [A Story of Old China, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/) / 13

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Superior Man may be poor in bodily comforts, but he is not poor in wisdom or virtue.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Superior Man, Man · **What happens:** be, not be · **To what, where:** bodily comforts, wisdom

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Superior Man, Man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:20:13
# text = The Superior Man may be poor in bodily comforts, but he is not poor in wisdom or virtue.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Superior	superior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	bodily	bodily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	comforts	comfort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	virtue	virtue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | the Superior Man |  |  | bodily comforts |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | present | Man |  |  | wisdom or virtue |  | poor *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/14/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/)