---
title: “My little sister and virtuous husband: your letters of invitation a… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “My little sister and virtuous husband: your letters of invitation are at hand. Who acts: letters, your. 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 5

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“My little sister and virtuous husband: your letters of invitation are at hand.

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**Who acts:** letters, your · **What happens:** be, letter · **To what, where:** hand, little sister, invitation

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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 (letters, your), 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:pg75089:20:5
# text = “My little sister and virtuous husband: your letters of invitation are at hand.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	virtuous	virtuous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
9	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	invitation	invitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | your letters of invitation |  |  | hand |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **letter** *in a quote* |  | your | invitation |  |  |  |  | nom letter «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=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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