---
title: Perhaps she had been off for a long drive over bad roads during the… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps she had been off for a long drive over bad roads during the day, had spoken to a restless crowd in a court, or by the roadside to a group of women gathered on the river bank, each with her bundle of clothes to be washed on the stones in the flowing stream. Who acts: Russell, roadside. A sent
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Nellie N. Russell, sentence 105

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Perhaps she had been off for a long drive over bad roads during the day, had spoken to a restless crowd in a court, or by the roadside to a group of women gathered on the river bank, each with her bundle of clothes to be washed on the stones in the flowing stream.

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**Who acts:** Russell, roadside · **What happens:** be off, speak, gather, wash, flow · **To what, where:** long drive, river bank, stones · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Nellie N. Russell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Russell, roadside), 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:pg75089:3:105
# text = Perhaps she had been off for a long drive over bad roads during the day, had spoken to a restless crowd in a court, or by the roadside to a group of women gathered on the river bank, each with her bundle of clothes to be washed on the stones in the flowing stream.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	drive	drive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	during	during	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	restless	restless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	roadside	roadside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	group	group	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	_
36	gathered	gather	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
42	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	45	det	_	_
43	with	with	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	45	nmod	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
49	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	aux:pass	_	_
50	washed	wash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	45	acl	_	_
51	on	on	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	_
54	in	in	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
56	flowing	flow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	57	amod	_	_
57	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be off** | past · perfect | Russell |  |  |  |  | for a long drive over bad roads during the day; perhaps *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect |  | a long drive over bad roads during the day *not said here* |  |  |  | to a restless crowd in a court or the roadside to a group of women and Russell's bundle of clothes | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to crowd=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **gather** | past | the roadside to a group of women *not said here* |  |  | the river bank |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wash** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  | the stones |  | in the flowing stream | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V» |
| 5 | **flow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «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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