---
title: “My sons, these poor neighbours have been kind to me always. — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: “My sons, these poor neighbours have been kind to me always. Who acts: 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 5

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“My sons, these poor neighbours have been kind to me always.

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**Who acts:** sons · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** mother

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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 (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:pg75089:21:5
# text = “My sons, these poor neighbours have been kind to me always.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
6	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	cop	_	_
10	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	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 · perfect | My sons and this poor neighbours |  | the mother *= mother* |  |  | always, kind *property* | tree rules |

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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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