---
title: “I dare not look on thy face, great Lord; for a Chuang Yuan to beat… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “I dare not look on thy face, great Lord; for a Chuang Yuan to beat a Kë Lao, there must always be a reason.” Who acts: Hai, reason. 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 94

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“I dare not look on thy face, great Lord; for a Chuang Yuan to beat a Kë Lao, there must always be a reason.”

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**Who acts:** Hai, reason · **What happens:** look, beat, be · **To what, where:** face, Kë Lao

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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 (Hai, reason), 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:pg75089:20:94
# text = “I dare not look on thy face, great Lord; for a Chuang Yuan to beat a Kë Lao, there must always be a reason.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	dare	dare	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
5	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	Chuang	Chuang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	Yuan	Yuan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Kë	Kë	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Lao	Lao	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	26	advmod	_	_
26	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** *in a quote* | present | Hai |  |  | thy face |  | for a Chuang Yuan | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent on face=Location for yuan=Theme |
| 2 | **beat** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Hai *not said here* | a Kë Lao |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lao=Theme |
| 3 | **be** *in a quote* | must | a reason |  |  | there |  | always *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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