---
title: “That is right and fair; to attack just outside of my door, there mu… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “That is right and fair; to attack just outside of my door, there must be a clear reason and a great one,” then he turned and commanded Ting Lang to tell at once. Who acts: That, reason. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 4, with its d
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/96/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [A Story of Old China, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/) / 96

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 4, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“That is right and fair; to attack just outside of my door, there must be a clear reason and a great one,” then he turned and commanded Ting Lang to tell at once.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** That, reason · **What happens:** be, attack, turn, command, tell · **To what, where:** clear reason, Ting · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (That, reason), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:20:96
# text = “That is right and fair; to attack just outside of my door, there must be a clear reason and a great one,” then he turned and commanded Ting Lang to tell at once.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	attack	attack	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	just	just	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
11	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	fixed	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
28	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
33	Ting	ting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
34	Lang	Lang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	appos	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
37	at	at	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | That |  |  |  |  | right *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* |  | That *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **attack** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | outside my door | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | a clear reason and a great one |  |  |  | a great one *conj* | tree rules |
| 5 | **turn** | past | reason |  |  |  | then |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **command** | past | reason *not said here* | Ting |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent ting=Eventuality |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/95/)
- next →: [sentence 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/97/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/20/)