---
title: The tiger may be very thin, but the strength of his heart is not dim… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The tiger may be very thin, but the strength of his heart is not diminished.” Who acts: tiger. 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 14

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The tiger may be very thin, but the strength of his heart is not diminished.”

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**Who acts:** tiger · **What happens:** be, not diminish · **To what, where:** strength

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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 (tiger), 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:pg75089:20:14
# text = The tiger may be very thin, but the strength of his heart is not diminished.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tiger	tiger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	diminished	diminish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | the tiger |  |  |  |  | thin *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **diminish** | present · passive |  | the strength of tiger's heart |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=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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