---
title: When all was ready the sons came and, bending the knee, said: — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When all was ready the sons came and, bending the knee, said: Who acts: all, ready sons. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 5, sentence 2

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When all was ready the sons came and, bending the knee, said:

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**Who acts:** all, ready sons · **What happens:** be, come, bend, say · **To what, where:** knee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (all, ready sons), 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:pg75089:21:2
# text = When all was ready the sons came and, bending the knee, said:
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	bending	bend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | all |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | the ready sons |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **bend** | gerund | the ready sons *not said here* | the knee |  |  |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent knee=Material |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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