---
title: He refused, but she persisted with prostrations and knockings of her… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: He refused, but she persisted with prostrations and knockings of her head on the brick floor. Who acts: father, offence. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Orient, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Daughter of the Orient, sentence 15

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He refused, but she persisted with prostrations and knockings of her head on the brick floor.

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**Who acts:** father, offence · **What happens:** refuse, persist, prostrate · **To what, where:** brick floor, head

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Daughter of the Orient. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, offence), 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:pg75089:7:15
# text = He refused, but she persisted with prostrations and knockings of her head on the brick floor.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	persisted	persist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	prostrations	prostration	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	knockings	knocking	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	brick	brick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **persist** | past | offence |  |  | the brick floor |  | with prostrations of offence's head and knockings | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on floor=Location |
| 3 | **prostrate** |  |  | offence's head |  |  |  |  | nom prostration «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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