---
title: Her face often expressed an abandonment of joy as she watched the ch… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Her face often expressed an abandonment of joy as she watched the children play, or laughed at their wise and witty sayings. Who acts: face, children. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Miss Nellie N. Russell’s Unique Work, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Miss Nellie N. Russell’s Unique Work, sentence 74

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Her face often expressed an abandonment of joy as she watched the children play, or laughed at their wise and witty sayings.

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**Who acts:** face, children · **What happens:** express, watch, play, laugh, abandon, say · **To what, where:** abandonment, wise sayings, joy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Miss Nellie N. Russell’s Unique Work. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, children), 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:pg75089:4:74
# text = Her face often expressed an abandonment of joy as she watched the children play, or laughed at their wise and witty sayings.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	expressed	express	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	abandonment	abandonment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
20	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	witty	witty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
23	sayings	saying	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **express** | past | Miss's face | a abandonment of joy |  |  |  | often *property* | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent abandonment=Theme |
| 2 | **watch** | past | face |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **play** | present | the children |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **laugh** | past | Miss's face *not said here* |  |  | children's wise sayings |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **abandon** |  |  | joy |  |  |  |  | nom abandonment «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **say** |  | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | nom saying «communication 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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