---
title: The place where the wicked Nien Chi lived is the site of the America… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The place where the wicked Nien Chi lived is the site of the American Board Mission in Peking and was bought by them over forty years ago. Who acts: wicked Nien Chi, place, father. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 5, with its depende
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/21/23/)

<!-- 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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/21/) / 23

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 5, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The place where the wicked Nien Chi lived is the site of the American Board Mission in Peking and was bought by them over forty years ago.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wicked Nien Chi, place, father · **What happens:** live, be, buy · **To what, where:** site

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wicked Nien Chi, place, father), 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:pg75089:21:23
# text = The place where the wicked Nien Chi lived is the site of the American Board Mission in Peking and was bought by them over forty years ago.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	8	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	Nien	Nien	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Chi	Chi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	site	site	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	American	American	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	Board	Board	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	Mission	Mission	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Peking	Peking	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	bought	buy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	over	over	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
27	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | the wicked Nien Chi |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | present | the place | the site |  |  |  | of the American Board Mission in Peking | tree rules |
| 3 | **buy** | past · passive | father |  |  |  | year |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V how S»: 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 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/21/22/)
- next →: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/21/24/)
- ↑ back to [A Story of Old China, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/21/)