---
title: Years came and went; to all the letters Lady Yü returned an answer t… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Years came and went; to all the letters Lady Yü returned an answer that she was in need of nothing and would not leave her native city. Who acts: Years, Lady. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 43

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Years came and went; to all the letters Lady Yü returned an answer that she was in need of nothing and would not leave her native city.

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**Who acts:** Years, Lady · **What happens:** come, go, return, be, not leave · **To what, where:** answer, letters, need, native city

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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 (Years, Lady), 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:pg75089:20:43
# text = Years came and went; to all the letters Lady Yü returned an answer that she was in need of nothing and would not leave her native city.
1	Years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
10	Lady	Lady	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	Yü	Yü	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	_
12	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	advcl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	nmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Years |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past | Years *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **return** | past | Lady | a answer |  | all letters |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent answer=Theme to letter=Destination |
| 4 | **is** | past | Lady |  |  | need |  | of nothing | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **leave** | would | Lady *not said here* | Lady's native city |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent city=Theme |

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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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