---
title: All this time her great desire had been to prepare herself for missi… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: All this time her great desire had been to prepare herself for missionary service. Who acts: great desire, sum. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Nellie N. Russell, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Nellie N. Russell, sentence 18

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All this time her great desire had been to prepare herself for missionary service.

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**Who acts:** great desire, sum · **What happens:** be, prepare, desire · **To what, where:** sum

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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 (great desire, sum), 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:pg75089:3:18
# text = All this time her great desire had been to prepare herself for missionary service.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	3	det:predet	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	prepare	prepare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	missionary	missionary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past · perfect | sum's great desire |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **prepare** | to-infinitive | sum's great desire *not said here* | sum |  |  |  | for missionary service | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent herself=Product for service=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **desire** |  | sum |  |  |  |  |  | nom desire «feeling transitive»: poss=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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