---
title: Tell me or I will fly at you,” and he put his head up, and spread hi… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Tell me or I will fly at you,” and he put his head up, and spread his wings, and tried to look very large and fierce. Who acts: you, I, goose. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, sentence 16

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Tell me or I will fly at you,” and he put his head up, and spread his wings, and tried to look very large and fierce.

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**Who acts:** you, I, goose · **What happens:** tell, fly, put up, spread, try, look · **To what, where:** me, head, wings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I, goose), 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:pg75089:8:16
# text = Tell me or I will fly at you,” and he put his head up, and spread his wings, and tried to look very large and fierce.
1	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	iobj	_	_
3	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **fly** | future | I |  |  |  |  | at you | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent at you=Location |
| 3 | **put up** *in a quote* | past | goose | goose's head |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent head=Goal |
| 4 | **spread** *in a quote* | past |  | goose's wings |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wing=Theme |
| 5 | **try** *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **look** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | large *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .note -->
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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