---
title: “My mother, if you weep to your illness, of what joy is my promotion? — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “My mother, if you weep to your illness, of what joy is my promotion? Who acts: you, joy. 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 144

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“My mother, if you weep to your illness, of what joy is my promotion?

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**Who acts:** you, joy · **What happens:** weep, be · **To what, where:** mother, promotion

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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 (you, joy), 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:pg75089:20:144
# text = “My mother, if you weep to your illness, of what joy is my promotion?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	weep	weep	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	obl	_	_
14	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	promotion	promotion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weep** *in a quote* | present | you | My mother *not said here* |  |  |  | to your illness; of My mother | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent mother=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | joy | my promotion |  |  |  | my *nmod:poss* | tree rules |

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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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